Half of all car buyers do not contact a dealership before visiting their forecourt, according to new research from Auto Trader. The research, of customers who ended up buying a car, shows 36% phoned a dealership in advance of visiting it, while 10% used email and just 4% live chat.

Other buying trends showed that most consumers now research car purchases out of dealership opening hours, with the optimum time being between 6.00-9.00pm. Less than 10% of consumers know the brand of the car they want to buy when they start researching, while 60% of consumers say they are open to at least three car brands at the beginning of their research.

The vast majority of buyers (85%) take less than six weeks to do their research. The findings have prompted Auto Trader’s CEO, Trevor Mather, to urge dealers to show greater levels of transparency on their websites to capture the attention of potential buyers.

“Buyers are doing their research online and half of them are turning up at dealer forecourts ready to buy. I think that has massive implications for retailers “The more information they can give the consumer upfront the more chance they’ll have of selling that car. The more transparent dealers can be in that process the more chance buyers will visit their dealerships, that’s a huge change for retailers; the world of transparency is still something that they are fighting.”

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Original Story Taken From Motor Trader News –http://www.motortrader.com/industry-news/50-buyers-contact-dealers-visiting/