Forget Quality, Safety: Car Buyers Care Most About Mileage, Mileage, And Mileage

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Fuel economy now is the leading factor that drives new car decisions, a study by Consumer Reports says. “Fuel economy” ranks top by a wide margin, followed far behind by quality, safety, and value.

The factors that trigger premature ejaculations in basement-dwelling, Gran Turismo playing phantasy car buyers, namely performance, design, and technology, are also-rans.

Car-purchase factorMost important (%)Fuel economy37Quality17Safety16Value14Performance6Design/style6Technology/innovation3

The heightened insistence on more mileage is not only good for the wallet, it also soothes the conscience. Says Consumer Reports:

“While gasoline costs were the number one reason cited for wanting a more fuel-efficient vehicle (at 90 percent), more than half of respondents also had other reasons, including a desire to be more environmentally friendly (62 percent) and concern about the nation’s dependence on foreign oil (56 percent).”

Full text of the report can be found here.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • LouisvilleBiodiesel LouisvilleBiodiesel on May 23, 2012

    let's see: quickest payback for diesel-powered TDI beats out every alternative vehicle ... not only does 100% biodiesel enjoy a higher cetane rating (65 to petroleum diesel's 39), is non-toxic & non-cancer-causing (to petroleum diesel pollution #2 cause of pre-mature death): catf.us/diesel/dieselhealth/ ... and enter your zip code ... wait for it ... biodiesel is approximately $1.00 a gallon LESS expensive than petroleum diesel: http://www.trianglebiofuels.com/ ... the day 50.1% of Americans care enough to be self-sufficient & lower our health risks for cancer = the day there will be B100 (100% biodiesel) stations in every city and town and along every highway. Until then, business as usual: http://www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/fuels/biodiesel_locations.html

  • Smallenginesmakemesad Smallenginesmakemesad on May 23, 2012

    I have this problem solved. I have: (a) a company fuel card - so my boss pays for my fuel. (b) a 500 CID Cadillac Eldorado that gets 10 mpg on a good day.

  • Redav Redav on May 23, 2012

    Fundamental flaws in the analysis: - The survey only shows that more people picked efficiency as their top factor. It does not tell us what other factors are important to those people, or in what order. For all we know, "performance" was a close #2 for 94% of the responders. This flaw is common on these types of surveys. - We don't know what kind of constraints consumers were considering when answering these questions. Case in point, if mpg is the MOST important thing to 37% of the market, the Prius would have 37% of the market. But we don't. Which means there are other, real-world constriants that the survey doesn't capture. - Instead, what this survey would indicate is that if a consumer was given a choice between two nearly equivalent cars, which differences will they look at? Many will look at mpg first, which makes sense since that is in big print on the window sticker. Very few will look at 0-60 first. - If this were real market research, it should have two parts: one for rating each factor on its own (e.g., is fuel efficiency of low, medium or high importance), and a second for ranking the factors to each other (e.g., is performance or styling more important). The reason for this is that the first tells automakers what consumers are looking for when shopping for a car, while the second indicates what they will use when choosing between options.

  • Ryoku75 Ryoku75 on May 23, 2012

    If this were true, I'd be seeing less station wagon crossovers on the road.

    • VA Terrapin VA Terrapin on May 23, 2012

      Like some said above, people aren't necessarily buying the most fuel efficient vehicles outright, but are buying more fuel efficient vehicles within a segment. 10 years ago, the best selling SUVs were midsize, like the Explorer and Trail Blazer. Now, compact CUVs dominate SUV sales charts. The V6 take rate for Ford F-150s, including ones with Ecoboost, is over 50%. Camry Hybrid sales have grown to more than 10% of total Camry sales. For a lot of people buying new cars now, fuel economy is a big deal. Recent sales figures back up this claim.

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