Having worked for an agency managing Hyundai’s (Canada) corporate website I still have interest in the automotive industry. Online, there are some basics that all manufacturers need to offer. From build and price, to request a test drive, the automotive industry has become a model for standardized web functionality. That said, every year, J.D. Power & Associates conducts semiannual ratings of them. This year, they say the best site is Honda’s, taking top honors for usefulness in new-vehicle shopping.
The “Manufacturer Web Site Evaluation Study” measures automakers’ sites to determine how useful they are to people who are either shopping for vehicles or about to begin. Scores are based on appearance, speed, navigation and the information/content of an automaker’s site. Honda gained 14 points from the last wave of the study in June. After Honda came Porsche, Mitsubishi, Kia and Acura, which is Honda’s up-market sibling.
Per the study, the industry is backsliding in Web functionality after several years of improvement. J.D. Power reports that the industry declined nine points since June. The new study, based on responses from 11,400 new-vehicle shoppers who indicated they would be in the market for a new vehicle within the next two years, says 16 manufacturer Web sites had double-digit decreases in the scores of their consumer sites. That, says the firm, is the largest decrease since the study’s inception 10 years ago. The largest declines were in sections for determining monthly payment and comparing vehicle attributes within the information/content measure of the study.
Scott Kane, senior research manager at the J.D. Power & Associates, says that shopper needs are driving the increasing importance of comparison tools. “Shoppers with tighter budgets turn to those tools to get information. The big shift came when people started getting financially strapped and turned to automakers’ Web based financial calculators and tools more and more. It is not necessarily the most important element of the site, but if you aren’t doing a good job, it will hurt you,” he says, adding that OEMs are also increasingly limited in terms of budget to support their Web presence. “As shopper budgets shrink, OEM budgets are shrinking too.”
The firm says automakers are also cutting back on the variety of vehicle images and videos they have on their sites, or have simplified their photo and video offerings. Kane says GM’s Hummer site is something of a poster brand for how creative is getting cut back. “They have cut way back on the kinds of images that entice shoppers,” he says. “There is no comparison between Hummer’s gallery today versus two years ago, when they were the number one Web site for product images. But it is across all automakers. Nobody is selling as many vehicles today so everyone is getting squeezed.
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I gather some data from OEM sites, and have noted a decline in the quality and quantity of information on them. Usability has suffered as increasing use has been made of Flash.
Comparison tools on these sites are inherently biased. The price comparisons, for example, often equip competing vehicles with everything on the OEM’s vehicle, but not vice-versa.
There’s only one balanced and thorough vehicle price comparison tool on the Internet, at TrueDelta.com:
http://www.truedelta.com/prices.php
I usually don
An interesting view of the automotive industry. Where do you see the future of the industry, will it ever recover or will there be major casulties?
Major casualties – I hope so. Particularly one or two of the big three American manufacturers. I truly believe that is a required outcome to make changes in the way we manufacture autos on a global basis.
Fantastic article. I’ve bookmarked this website so I can follow your updates. Thanks for taking the energy to share this.