Women
and the Automotive World
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facts & figures on women and
the auto industry
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Women
& Automobiles ·
Women purchase 65% of all new cars and 53% of used cars, and they influence 95%
of all auto purchases. (Source: Road & Travel Magazine)
·
Sixty-five percent (65%) of women take their own vehicles to
a repair shop for service. Some repair industry experts estimate
that the average may actually be closer to 80%. (Source:
Road & Travel Magazine)
·
The overall percentage of female drivers rose from 4% in 1972 to 49% in 1996,
while the overall percentage of male drivers decreased from 56% to 51%. (Source:
U.S. Department of Transportation) ·
Women purchase automobiles by: Car loan (66%), Bank loan (44%), Dealer (27%) and
Credit Union (15%). (Source: New Vehicle Financing Study,
Bank Advertising News and the Gallup Organization)
Women & Dealerships
The
percentages of women working in car dealerships as of June 2002 were as follows:
(Source: CNW Marketing Research)
·
Total dealership workforce 7%
· Office staff 60%
· Finance/insurance
and managers 16.2%
· General Managers 7.1%
· Owners 4.9%
· New car sales 4.2%
· Service advisers 2.2%
· Use-car
sales 2.1% Major
automakers: of General Motors 7,400 dealerships, 226 or 3%, are owned by women;
at Ford, women own 278, or 5% of the 5,165 dealerships. It's much the same for
other automakers. Women hold about 7 percent of all jobs in dealerships, up from
3.5 percent in 1990. (Source: CNW Marketing Research) Thirty-nine
percent (39%) of women would rather deal with women in the car showroom, compared
with 10 percent of men who prefer to buy cars from other men. On the flip side,
13 percent of women prefer to deal with men, and 11 percent of men want to deal
with women. The rest are indifferent about the sales representative's sex.
(Source: CNW Marketing Research)
Women
who own dealerships tend to do well, and several manufacturers report that franchises
owned by women are at or near the top in overall sales volume. Some dealers and
industry analysts have an explanation for that. "The reason women become
so successful is we're interested in treating women right when they come in,"
said Ms. Van Bortel, 48. "I don't mean to sound stereotypical, but women
have so much more empathy for customers" (Source: The
New York Times, 2003) (CONTINUE...)
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