The 2024 Capital One Car Buying Outlook finds almost half (48%) of car buyers said they would be willing to go to a car dealership with higher prices if it was a dealership they could trust.

Using online soft credit pulls and pre-qualification, car buyers can enter a dealership with a sense of their pricing options. This is where face-to-face interactions with knowledgeable salespeople become vital for dealers to foster trust and transparency. 

Key findings of the new 2024 Car Buying Outlook from Capital One include:

• 88% of car buyers conduct at least half of the car-buying process in person, a 5 percentage point increase from last year’s report.
• 26% of car buyers said working with a dealer they trust is the most important part of the car-buying experience — only 10% said getting the best price for the vehicle was most important. 
• Salespeople make the greatest difference in that in-person relationship — 60% of buyers said sales reps contribute to trust.
• Car buyers who feel the car-buying process is transparent are 2.75 times as likely to trust car dealers. And those who trust dealers are over seven times more likely to find the car-buying process transparent.

“The car-buying experience calls for a unique standard of transparency and trust,” said Sanjiv Yajnik, president of financial services at Capital One. “Finding common ground is the key to robust sales and satisfied, loyal customers. The combination of powerful online tools and meaningful face-to-face interaction to build relationships is what drives this industry. Dealers that make the most of both avenues can give buyers the transparency they want, and when buyers feel the car-buying process is transparent, they’re far more likely to trust dealers.”

Trust can help drive car buyers to a dealership, and transparency is an important source of trust, according to the report. Most car buyers (52%) define transparency as a car’s price and financing being clear.

More than half of buyers (55%) found the buying process “very” or “completely” transparent, compared to 28% of buyers in the 2023 report.

The report showed 73% of dealers believe the process is transparent, closing the gap with car buyers to only 18 percentage points from the 40 percentage point gap in 2023. 
Car buyers are twice as likely to return to the same dealer for their next car purchase if they find dealers trustworthy.

Digital tools are reshaping the early stages of car buying, with both dealers and buyers agreeing that digital tools help streamline the process.