A “pain point” isn’t a medical term, but a business one. It’s defined as a specific problem that prospective customers of a business are experiencing; a point that makes the process of using a particular service or commercial process. The world of automotive sales and driving are home to many such pain points.

A report from a GfK market research identified no fewer than 16 pain points for modern drivers, 11 of which stem from in-car experience and others connected to the car buying experience. It is the latter that we want to explore in today’s blog.

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During 2019, even before the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the car dealers was experiencing lengthy inventory turnover. A 2019 blog piece on SHIFTMobility.com pointed to US figures that showed vehicles sold in May 2019 had spent a lot longer on average sat on the dealer lot before sale than even 2009 when the world was dealing with the Great Recession. The average was 74 days on the lot before finally being sold.

What does this suggest about the world of automotive sales? Even before we dive in to the detail, it’s telling us that customers in general remain dissatisfied with the overall experience and process of buying a new car. Below we study three of the biggest pain points in more detail and some possible solutions that car buyers could embrace.

Pain Point 1: Car Buying process is Time-Consuming and Complicated

Solution: Aggregators that Connect Customers with In-Stock Models — e.g. CarBevy

What time is used in the current car buying process? Think about it: first you spend a lot of time researching the cars you want, then you have to find local dealerships. You need to pinpoint their locations and either drop in one day or make further telephone inquiries to find out if they have what you want. If they don’t, then you have to wait longer for them to get your dream model from their off-site lots. All of this is before you get to all the paperwork needed to actually purchase the things and drive it off the lot.

Automotive aggregators like www.carbevy.com are built to take the sting out of buying a car. Their goal is to cut down wasted time by connecting users with various dealership and, more importantly, showing them the items that they actually have in stock. Using this platform, customers can connect directly with a dealer that has the exact car they want, ready to go. This greatly speeds up the process, and simplifies it, too. You don’t have to wade through the sales patter as you tell them what you want and they counter with something else they want to sell you.

Pain Point 2: Haggling with the Dealer is Unpleasant

Solution: Customers Name Their Price and Wait for the Dealers to Come to Them

The days of hustling for bargains are firmly behind us. The modern consumer does not enjoy the process of bargaining, preferring the “one-click purchase” culture created by online shopping experiences they engage with regularly. Younger buyers like to see a price, agree with it and take it. This is where platforms like www.carbevy.com once again have a role to play.

CarBevy allows buyers to first name their price. The vast majority have done their online research in advance, and they know roughly how much the car should cost, and how much they are willing to pay. This is then sent to multiple dealers, who will either take it or leave it. It’s a neat solution. It’s good for dealers because they are connecting with a willing buyer who is even setting out a price. It’s also good for buyers because it’s very likely dealers will snap up these offers in order to stay competitive in a tough market. It’s win-win.

Pain Point 3: Pricing is Steered by the Dealerships
Solution: Put Some of This Power in the Hands of the Buyer

It has always been the practice that buyers followed the prices set by dealerships. The dealers, in turn, were usually following recommended retail rates from either their parent or from the going market rates plus reasonable profit for the dealers. The result of all this is a system where new car buyers are shut out of the pricing process.

Online platforms often claim to be offering “the best price,” but is that true? Since they are in a partnership with the dealerships, it follows that their primary directive is to benefit their own company (and shareholders) and the dealership. This means prices will be set to achieve those goals, and not to genuinely save the buyer money.

Allowing car buyers some purchase in the pricing arena — as they do get on www.carbevy.com — means that the market will start to work for the customers. This should solve the pain point of prices being constantly out of our control as drivers.

Modern Car Buyers are Motivated by the Experience

Though many tend to think of Generations Y and Z as cynical anti-capitalists who eschew commercialism and refuse to buy cars, they couldn’t be more wrong. The communitycars.com blog revealed that in 2018, millennials accounted for 4.1 million auto sales — around 29 percent of all buyers. That figure was expected to rise to 40 percent by 2020. What we know is that millennials are far from shunning the idea of buying a car. They just want new, faster and more convenient ways to do it.

This new generation of buyers is greatly motivated by the consumer experience. They like clean, simple and easy access to the things they want. They want to push some buttons and have the exact car they want on the way to them as soon as possible. They want a short and simplified process; they want the ability to gain the upper hand in pricing; they want choice and ease of purchase. In short, they want car buying to be painless. CarBevy is here to address these pain points and simplify car buying process.