March Car Buying Improves Slightly Ahead of Tariffs

There was an upward correction in this month’s Ease of Purchase Scorecard as more car buyers said it was easy to buy a car in March. The 89% score comes after a large drop in February to 87%, lower than we’d seen in many months and off from 2024’s 88% average. That drop was due to more struggles finding inventory of specific models. While inventory wasn’t as significant a factor in March as more people found what they wanted in stock, there were some pitfalls.

As the scales tipped toward finding their car in stock, 56% in March up from 49% in February, buyers had to trek to more dealerships. Nearly one in four (24%) had to visit three or more dealerships to secure the car they wanted, up from 20% last month. That’s the same number as March 2024 but has improved since supply chain issues led to inventory shortages. March 23 saw 31% of shoppers visiting three or more dealers.

One respondent in the survey agreed that there were issues “finding a vehicle in my price range” and another said the Sales team had a hard time finding the right car as they were being shuffled between dealerships.

The inventory issues discussed last month even impacted one of the typically higher scores we record: taking the test drive. Generally, this is an easy process for most respondents and this month hit 81% compared to last month’s unsarcastically low 72%. Last March was still much higher at 87%.

Luckily, once the right vehicle was selected and test-driven, many parts of the purchase process were easier than they were last month including applying for credit. Many indicators of credit availability still show a high number of rejections but for those applying at the dealership, 67% said it was an easy process. That’s up significantly from 57% last month and closer to last year’s 66%.

Most shoppers (51%) said the entire process took about the time they expected, which remains fairly steady in recent months. Similarly, the amount of people completing the entire process at the dealership held close to past months at 72%. However, this was one of the first months that no buyers surveyed bought their car entirely online. Usually, that number is relatively low, around 1% or 2%, but zero is rare.

Recently, we reported on how shoppers’ opinion of salespeople had improved in the more than two years the survey has been in the field. And this month Sales managers should be happy to hear that those metrics all increased yet again, for example, your interaction with the salesperson professional, hit 90%.