Team-BHP - Maruti Suzuki most online searched car brand: Google India

New Delhi: Maruti Suzuki India is the most searched car maker among potential buyers looking for online information, says a Google India study.

According to Google study on 'The Role of the Internet in Buying’, 56 per cent respondents said they searched for Maruti Suzuki before buying a car, while 33 per cent said they bought the vehicle after the online search.

This was followed by Honda, with 46 per cent seeking information on the Honda models and 17 per cent said they bought a Honda car.

Tata Motors stood a close third (43 per cent search), followed by Hyundai, Ford and Toyota.

"The results help us in understanding the psyche of the consumers. They search for models, brands and also compare prices, be it old or new cars and that helps us give input to auto companies on what the consumer is looking for," Google India Business Head Narasimha Jayakumar told PTI.

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Brand name was the top priority for search with about 81 per cent respondents saying they searched for the brand name online while buying a new car, while model formed the second top criterion for search.

About 27 per cent people searched online for offers and 25 per cent searched for dealers while buying a new car.

source: Maruti Suzuki most online searched car brand: Google India

If anyone has this report, share it ... it will make up for an interesting read. Proof that internet is no longer a 'just another' thing

cheers,
ac

It is not mentioned where this study was performed.

If Google performed this study in a place like Electronics City, Bangalore, I am sure they would have got the result that 100% of the respondents searched online before making a car purchase.

Had Google performed this study in a village 100 kms away from Bangalore, they would have got the result that only 10% of the respondents have even heard of Google Search engine.

Moral of the story - these studies are totally useless and in no way represent the behavior of the Indian customer. It merely represents the behavior of the customers in that particular area.

In my personal opinion, Maruti's sell more because of their reliability, FE, cheap spares, word of mouth publicity and availability of A.S.S. even in the remotest places, rather than because of the number of hits on the website.

Rohan

i agree with Rohan here. all those studies conducted are generally useless.

same with Honda as well. peopel buy becasue of mind set, Honda City is the car. even at Electronics city banaglore, most of the people here want to buy Swift or an i10. Finally they form a group and chekout for corporate discount. so Online search and then buy is not a general trend here as well

General trend i have observed in our parking lot is that managers drive Honda city corolla and others in project drive i10 or swift or an indica :D

what this report is trying to tell us is more and more people are now depending / relying on the internet for buying cars.

Internet is no longer just 'information' about specs, today internet has become an experiential medium too : e.g check the latest e-brochure by beat, its fun and nice.

this report is no where telling which car is being bought for what reason, but it just is telling which brands are leading the 'internet revolution'

cheers,
ac

Everybody knows that internet usage is increasing in the country, we don't need a study to prove this. :uncontrol

It is not just about cars, customers are using internet to gather information and user reviews on all kinds of products. But I feel that this trend is only in the bigger cities.

In the smaller cities, car buying decisions are still governed by word of mouth publicity and availability of A.S.S. Small town people don't care how good the car company's website has been designed. :uncontrol

Rohan