Understanding how the car buying journey evolves overtime aids with establishing specifically when, where and how to attract the right buyers to your inventory listings. Our latest Path to Purchase study, conducted by Dig Insights, deep dives the car buying experience of both used and new Canadian car shoppers who purchased a vehicle in the past six months, deep diving the specifics of their purchasing behaviour and patterns, and how these trends have changed since we last conducted research in 2022.
One of the top reasons both new and used car buyers embarked on their car buying journey was to replace a current vehicle that was getting too old, as reported by 31% of used buyers and 33% of new. A surprisingly large number, 25% of used and 39% of new shoppers, also wanted simply to upgrade to something nicer or newer. Another common trigger was the need to accommodate new travel or commuting needs, with this being a reason to purchase a vehicle for 25% of used and 20% of new shoppers.