Urban Science recently released their annual 2024 Urban Science Dealership Transformation Index (DTI) shows improvement from the year before, especially with Gen Z consumers.
The 2024 Urban Science DTI score overall stands at 56, up a percentage point from the year before. This progression was attributed to positive customer interactions that are enabling short- and long-term service and sales loyalty, and in turn business relationships that promote healthy dealerships and retail networks.
The DTI is measures three key categories: dealer relevance, trend resistance and actions. Urban Science, in coordination with and The Harris Poll, surveyed both U.S. franchised auto dealers and buyers.
Valuing the Dealer’s Role
As for dealer relevance, which gauges how auto buyers perceive the role of dealers, the expertise of salespeople and other aspects of the vehicle-buying journey, rose two percentage point to 62.
In the poll, 43 percent of auto buyers strongly agreed dealers play an essential role in the new-car-buying journey—a four-percentage-point increase over 2023. And 42 percent of auto buyers strongly agreed today’s dealers provide the resources, tools and tech to make buying a vehicle easy and convenient, rising eight percentage points.
Additionally, 35 percent of auto buyers strongly agreed salespeople have the expertise necessary to help people navigate the complex vehicle-buying process
Apart for dealings now, auto buyers and dealers increasingly believe traditional dealerships are optimized for the future with double digit increases among the two groups. Rising 11 percent points, 38 percent of auto buyers strongly agree; 48 percent of dealers strongly agree, climbing 17-percentage-point from a year ago.
The View from Gen Z Shoppers
Dealer relevance among Gen Z is strong, with a score of 67—up seven points year over years—as well as 51 percent (+19) of the cohort strongly agreed today’s dealers provide the resources, tools and tech to make buying a vehicle easy and convenient.
Additionally, 46 percent of Gen Z auto buyers believe dealers play an essential role in the car-buying journey, which matches the perception of Millennials, and outpacing Baby Boomers (44 percent) and Gen X (37 percent) in this regard.
Moreover, 47 percent of Gen Z auto buyers, up 14 percentage point, strongly agree salespeople have the expertise necessary to help them navigate the complex vehicle-buying process compared to Boomers (32 percent), Millennials (40 percent) and Gen X (28 percent) who lag regarding strong agreement.
Innovations Thoughts
Trend resistance measures how likely auto buyers are to resist new innovations in the automotive retail space, from new vehicle technologies to evolving car-shopping and -buying experiences offered to them.
In 2024, trend resistance dropped one point to 52 in the past year, primarily influenced by growing preference for online car-buying and ride-sharing services. To that end 33 percent of auto buyers strongly agreed they are open to purchasing a vehicle fully online (i.e., from selecting the vehicle they want to contracting/purchasing)—a three-percentage-point increase over 2023; 47 percent of auto buyers agreed dealers are keeping up on understanding and advising the marketplace on electric vehicles (EVs); and 20 percent of auto buyers strongly agreed owning a personal vehicle is not as important as it used to be with all the new ways to get around (e.g., EV scooters/bikes, ZipCar, Uber)—a significant increase of four percentage points YOY.
80 percent Prefer Auto Dealers
Actions describe what auto buyers are doing—or considering—regarding their vehicle purchases, from visiting a dealership to submitting online quotes. This year’s actions dimension score is 54, a one-point increase over 2023.
Where they considered purchasing their vehicles, 80 percent said manufacturer dealerships; 35 percent said independent used dealerships; and 32 percent said national used dealerships, a seven-percentage-point increase over 2023.
Across the board, auto buyers prefer traditional in-person purchasing over other options. The following are the buying formats respondents would consider:
- In person at traditional dealership (91 percent)
- Dealership website, fully online (67 percent)
- OEM website, fully online (59 percent)
- Non-traditional dealership (57 percent; five-percentage-point increase over 2023)
Notably, EV owners (58 percent) are twice as likely as ICE vehicle owners (29 percent) to strongly agree they are open to purchasing a vehicle fully online.
