Smartphone Car Lead-Gen Satisfaction Continues to Outpace Desktop Satisfaction

Satisfaction Gap Closes among Automotive Third-Party Websites, J.D. Power Finds

TROY, Mich.: 19 March 2020 — The J.D. Power 2020 Automotive Website Evaluation Study,SM released today, shows a gap of only 9 points (on a 1,000-point scale) among the top six websites on desktop. The study measures the usefulness of U.S. automotive third-party websites during the process of shopping for a new or used vehicle by examining four key measures (in order of importance): information/content; appearance; navigation; and speed.

“We redesigned this year’s study to ensure visibility and analyzation of several recent trends seen in automotive third-party websites,” said Jon Sundberg, senior manager of digital solutions at J.D. Power. “New digital functionality has been implemented by many third-party websites, such as personalization and digital retailing, which enhance the shopping experience for the consumer, and we want to ensure the shopper’s voice is included in these areas.”

This year’s study finds that overall satisfaction averages 773 for desktop, while the smartphone averages 795. Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book (790) rank highest in a tie in the desktop segment and Carfax (829) is the highest-ranked in the smartphone segment.

The Automotive Website Evaluation Study, initially released in 2013, is based on responses from 4,236 vehicle shoppers (desktop and smartphone) who indicate they will be in the market for a new or used vehicle within the next 24 months. The study was fielded in January 2020. J.D. Power has its own consumer automotive websites that compete with the websites in the Automotive Website Evaluation Study, but they are not included in the study.