Study: European Auto Sites Enjoy Traffic Surge

While automotive Web sites continue to gain traction among Internet users in the United States, data released Wednesday by Jupiter MMXI found that European consumers are increasingly steering toward such sites to research auto purchases, get directions and secure car loans and insurance policies.

"The Internet is clearly an established source of information for car buyers in Europe," said Jupiter MMXI analyst Staffan Engdegard. "This is very important from an advertising perspective."

Jupiter MMXI said that the number of Europeans visiting auto-related sites more than doubled between April 2000 and March 2001.

Similarly, the study concluded that the reach of auto sites in Europe's largest Internet markets also doubled during the same period.

Engdegard noted that the automotive industry is one of the biggest advertisers in traditional media channels, such as television and print.

"This information shows that car manufacturers must target the ever-increasing number of Europeans Internet users in order to influence their online, and more important, offline car purchase decision," Engdegard said.

Road Maps

Among individual countries, Germany registered the greatest reach for auto sites, growing from 6.8 percent last April to 15.3 percent in March 2001, with 1.9 million unique visitors for the month.

The United Kingdom placed second, with reach growing from 6.9 percent to 12.6 percent during the same period. More than 1.7 million unique UK users visited auto sites last month.

In France, the reach of auto Web sites jumped from 3.8 percent to 10.3 percent, with 809,000 unique users.

In all of these markets, Jupiter MMXI found that the audience for automotive sites in March 2001 was more than 70 percent male, and fell primarily into the age bracket of 25- to 34-year-olds.

Local Sites

Popular sites in the UK included Autotrader.co.uk, Theaa.co.uk, RAC.co.uk and Jamjar.com.

In Germany, Norway, and Spain, car manufacturer Web sites saw heavy traffic. The homepages of German car manufacturers Volkswagen, GM subsidiary Opel, BMW and Mercedes-Benz were among the most popular destinations.

Sticker Shock

U.S. Internet car sales have suffered from a massive gap between e-shoppers who browse and those who actually purchase online. A recent Gartner Group study, for example, found that while 45 percent of U.S. households used the Internet to research a car purchase, 3 percent bought over the Web.

However, a report released last week by CNW Marketing Research found that while more than half of American car buyers compare car prices on the Internet before entering the showroom, the prices displayed on the most popular Web sites often run hundreds of dollars higher than the actual sticker price.

In a survey of 10 Internet car-selling Web sites, the average vehicle price listed was $630 above the manufacturer's suggested retail price, the study said. By comparison, prices were overstated by an average of $444 last year.