Car Buyer Rush Leaves Mixed Results at the Dealership

Car dealers are seeing a return to normal in terms of how buyers are finding the purchase process easy but there’s a significant change when it comes to vehicle availability. The primary Ease of Purchase score hit 89% in August, a steady gain from July’s 86% and far higher than the 77% in June. Yet, there’s still room to grow as last August hit our highest score of 93%. 

The gap could be due to how many people are having to buy their new car in transit. 

That number jumped to 29% from 19% in July and is higher than August 2024’s 25%. This trend is directly in line with new car inventory falling at a time when consumers are pulling forward purchasing decisions because of EV incentives ending and the possibility of higher prices for all cars due to tariffs. 

The fact that the number of buyers ordering from the factory dropped and that nearly three-quarters of buyers (74%) are completing the entire deal at the dealership suggests that buyers want to make their deals quickly once they’re on-site.

When it came to the various steps in the purchase process there were clear positives and negatives. 

The generally contentious steps around price negotiations, trade-in values, applying for credit, and completing the financing steps all remained steady or improved in August from July although they were lower than a year ago. While those steps remained stable, there was significant weakness across steps involving physically getting into a car. 

Taking the test drive is one of the most pivotal parts of the purchase process as CDK research has shown many times. The number of buyers who said that was easy fell from 79% in July to 72% in August, just barely above June’s historically low 69%. If inventories continue to remain restrained, dealers will need to adjust how they get customers into a test vehicle. 

Taking delivery also took a hit in August with 68% of buyers saying that step was easy compared to 75% just a month ago and it was even lower than June’s 69%. This drop in delivery scores also follows restrictions in inventory and signals an area to improve as it’s likely the moment buyers are most looking forward to and can negatively impact the Net Promoter Score. 

The spike in summer sales teamed with the drop in inventory seems to have created another crunch, similar to what drove numbers far lower in June. However, despite the many issues along the path to purchasing the car, buyers were overwhelmingly happy to complete the entire deal. Perhaps that number reflects relief on the buyer’s side to bring a car home before a perceived spike in prices.