The fleet effect is fairly evident when you look at the Top Ten new car models sold in 2011.

Ford Fiesta
Ford Focus
Vauxhall Corsa
VW Golf
Vauxhall Astra
Vauxhall Insignia
VW Polo
BMW 3 series
Nissan’s Qashqai
Mini

The cars are smaller, cheaper and greener than they used to be.

Cost is clearly an influencer and fleet cars are smaller eg BMW 3 series and the Golf, other than the Insignia.

In terms of new car sales in general Ford, Vauxhall, VAG, BMW and Nissan have done well in 2011. Of the big brands, Toyota, Honda, Fiat, Mazda and Renault haven’t.

There are very few cars in this list that aren’t popular with women drivers so I’m pleased to see that our influence and preferences are being felt in the fleet as well as the personal car market.

FOXY Steph

An interesting sales survey in the motor industry confirms that franchised car dealers are not maximising their new car sales opportunities due to their lethargy in dealing with online enquiries.

Lethargy, apathy or a lack of online sales experience one wonders?

Sales business Optilead believes dealers are lagging behind the likes of travel and financial businesses who now know how to use the internet to their advantage.

To be sure, they carried out a survey based on mystery shopping via the internet at dealerships, contacting them via their website or by email to organise a test drive.

Most of us know that a test drive request suggests a customer is ready to buy and gives a salesman a very strong opportunity to sell that car…

Out of the dealers that Optilead contacted (no mention of survey size by the way) c25% called back within 24 hours, about half took between one and three days to call and the rest made no contact at all. That’s dreadful, especially when every sale counts in a recession…

Bearing in mind that some 80% of new car buyers do their homework online, and that women influence the majority of all car purchases, this is tantamount to dealers giving the driving wheel to a back seat driver who may then choose to go and buy from an online car retailer they don’t know to avoid the dealership experience altogether.

If the car buyer is female chances are she’ll be even more likely to buy online than her male counterpart to avoid being patronised and/or overcharged if she’s on her own.

This mightn’t be the case in some  dealerships but it is the perception of many women drivers and those that are not seen to be female friendly and efficient will steadily lose her custom as others strengthen their internet act and sales pull.

FOXY Steph

Find out more about how female friendly car dealerships can win more female business at FOXY Choice website.