Survey: Gen Z buyers find car shopping more difficult than older drivers

As members of the Gen Z generation enter professional life, details about their car-buying habits are beginning to emerge. Some of the trends identified by a recent study are unsurprising, but the youngest group of drivers views car shopping differently than older generations.

Data provider CDK Global conducted the study by surveying 1,100 people of all ages who bought a car from a dealer in 2021; there’s no mention of whether it was new or used. One key point worth mentioning is that 56% of respondents from the Gen Z generation (that’s those born between 1997 and 2012) had bought their first car. It’s perhaps not startling, then, that 81% of Gen Z buyers said that they want to take their time when they’re shopping for a car and understand all of their options. That figure fell to 73%, 60%, and 45% for Millennials, Gen Z, and Baby Boomers, respectively. It stands to reason that older customers had a much better understanding of the car-buying process.

On a similar note, 16% of Gen Z buyers said that they prefer working with a knowledgeable representative, up from 12% for Millennials, 8% for Gen X buyers, and 4% for Baby Boomers. However, they expect sales personnel to follow a certain etiquette. Gen Z drivers were the least likely to recommend the dealership experience to a friend, and 27% said that they were annoyed by having to wait for a salesperson.

The same study found that the top-ranked dealership frustrations for Gen Z buyers were additional fees (52%), waiting on a salesperson (45%), and waiting on financing and insurance (38%). Buying a car online is emerging as an alternative to walking into a dealership and spending an afternoon there, but that may not be the ideal solution for younger motorists, either. The study surprisingly found that 22% of Gen Z buyers (who were born after the internet) found it difficult to buy a car online, compared to 5% of Millennials and 7% of Gen X buyers.

Dealing with the downsides of buying a car is just as annoying for a 20-year-old as it is for a 72-year-old, though the pain points are different. At least the youngers drivers that we share the road with are ensuring that they get a nice reward at the end of the process: 39% of the Gen Z buyers surveyed took home a luxury car, according to the study, versus 29% of Millennials, 27% of Gen Xers, and 12% of Baby Boomers.