Today’s market offers a variety of ways to purchase a car that were unheard of even 15 years ago. The meteoric rise of IT means that there is less need to trawl around car salesrooms or plough through the small ads in the local paper. Now it is common to not only select the preferred model online but also to study its performance and check out 3D views of the interior from every angle. In addition, a potential buyer can read customer reviews so the purchaser is armed with technical specs and vehicle performance details long before being anywhere near ready to go car shopping.

Even if the buyer is not a car enthusiast, the chances are they will have come across some car related information before purchase. Nowadays the car buyer is much more product-aware, thus being in a stronger purchasing position and meaning the seller must up the ante and be expected to do more than simply match the customer’s knowledge. Consequently the car business has opened up and now includes the prospective buyer within the hallowed realms of mechanical knowledge erstwhile only know to the chosen few.

For the seller, however, the basic methods of sales and marketing have advanced along with IT, and those in car sales really have to know the product inside out. With global competition growing tighter they must be prepared to be flexible in terms of cost and other incentives to purchase.

It is not all bad news for the seller though, because with most UK vehicles purchased with finance, customers have more access to loans than they had before so those who are seriously in the market for a vehicle have a higher percentage of acquiring finance than ever before. In addition there are more company cars on the road too, giving scope for tendering cars by the fleet and incorporating a maintenance contract.