Introduction
The automotive market in the GCC region has seen a decline in sales since 2016. Despite dealers lowering prices and introducing many new models, buyers have not fully succumbed to the desire to purchase a new car. To gain a clearer understanding of this trend, YallaMotor, the largest automotive website in the region, conducted a survey gathering 3,943 responses to better understand car buying behavior in the GCC.
Most Popular Brands and Models
The first step in gaining insights into buyer preferences was to identify the brands and models that attract the most interest. With over 6 million car buyers browsing more than 61 million pages on YallaMotor from January to June, we were easily able to identify the brands and models that garnered the most attention among car buyers in the GCC.
Most Popular Brands
Toyota ranked first, achieving double the interest of its closest competitor, Hyundai, which came in second. Nissan secured the third position, with these three brands dominating the GCC automotive market.
Most Popular Models
When it comes to specific models, the Toyota Land Cruiser stands out as the most popular model in the GCC, closely followed by the renowned Nissan Patrol. Interestingly, the unconventional Nissan Kicks also claimed the third spot.
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Most Popular Body Types
After identifying the most popular brands and models, we aimed to learn more about our audience and their preferences. Among the 6 million users who visited the site in the first two quarters of 2019, 1.33 million were in the market's final stages of the car buying cycle. Analyzing this group revealed the three most popular body types:
- Sedans
- SUVs
- Luxury cars
These results clearly indicate the preferences of the GCC market. SUVs and luxury cars represent a significant share of car sales (as evidenced by their overwhelming presence on the roads), while sedans, a category that many manufacturers seem to be moving away from, remain a popular choice for buyers. Other categories with notably lower interest include hatchbacks, pickup trucks, compact trucks, coupes, convertibles, and station wagons.
Information Sources
When asked about their information sources when purchasing a car, 67% of respondents indicated that online research is their primary means of gathering information. Interestingly, 34.92% turned to independent third-party websites as a trusted source when searching for information online.
The second most common channel for information was what is referred to as "influencers." It is noteworthy that "influencers" in this context are not celebrities with millions of followers on social media, but rather family members and friends whose recommendations and opinions car buyers trust.
Relatively, we found that the influence and importance of traditional marketing channels such as newspapers, magazines, television, and radio are gradually declining.
Purchasing Timeline
With a better understanding of buyers' information sources, we sought to delve deeper into the purchasing timeline to gain a clearer picture of the time buyers spend gathering information and making their final decision.
Our findings revealed that car buyers in the GCC exhibit significantly different behavior compared to buyers in other regions. For instance, most car buyers in the GCC make their final decision in less than a month, whereas in markets such as the United States or Europe, buyers typically take three times longer.
Purchasing Timeframe
For more detailed numbers, we identified that:
- 27.31% of buyers tend to make their final decision in less than ten days.
- 19.86% of buyers tend to decide between ten and twenty days.
- Only 17.42% of buyers make their decision in twenty to thirty days.
Customer Experience at Car Dealerships
After gathering insights into how car buyers conduct their research and the duration they take to purchase their vehicles, we also wanted to understand their experiences during showroom visits and the elements that contribute to a pleasant and informative visit.
It was revealed that 27.26% of respondents visited dealerships only once before purchasing their car, while 22.77% of buyers visited car dealerships twice. The conclusion drawn from these numbers is that buyers are now more informed before entering showrooms, having done their homework online using third-party sites.
Regarding the key factors that contribute to a pleasant and informative visit, location, hours of operation, and dealership staff were the top three factors, followed by opportunities for test drives and the ambiance of the showrooms.
Surprisingly, 31.12% of respondents claimed that no one from the showroom reached out to them during the sales process, while 27.44% stated that sales staff were in touch, but only to some extent. This directly correlates with the fact that less than 50% of car buyers would recommend the dealer they purchased from to a friend.
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Chinese Brands
From what we observe on the roads, there seems to be a growing interest in Chinese cars in the GCC. To better understand their market share, we discovered that Chinese brands account for 5.65% of the car buyer community in the GCC. MG Motor emerged as the most popular brand, followed by Geely in second place, GAC Motor in third, Changan in fourth, and Chery in fifth.
