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WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.: 1 February 2006 — Lexus.com is the most useful automobile manufacturer Web site for new-vehicle shopping, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2006 Manufacturer Web Site Evaluation StudySM – Wave 1 released today.
The study, which is conducted twice a year, measures the usefulness of manufacturer Web sites during the new-vehicle shopping process. Sites are evaluated by new-vehicle shoppers in four key areas: appearance, speed, navigation, and information/content. Information/content, which includes vehicle features, specifications, images, configurators, payment calculators and dealer locators, is the most important factor area to shoppers, accounting for 36 percent of the overall index score.

Lexus ranks highest with an index score of 874 on a 1,000-point scale—an increase of 32 points from Wave 2 of the study in June 2005. Only 6 percent of Lexus site evaluators rate the site 700 or less—down from 14 percent in the previous wave and the lowest percentage ever recorded since the study began in 2000.

“Vehicle shoppers come to automotive sites with a wide range of shopping patterns, Internet skills, Internet connections, computer configurations, automotive understanding and automotive vocabulary,” said Dennis Galbraith, senior director of digital marketing solutions at J.D. Power and Associates. “Creating one site that works well for so many new-vehicle shoppers is an extraordinary challenge, but Lexus has demonstrated that it can be done.”

Across all manufacturer sites, the industry average of 834 is the highest recorded in the seven-year history of the study. The industry average increased significantly from the previous wave (823). In fact, for the first time no manufacturer scores below 800 on the 1,000-point scale.

“While it’s true that some sites are significantly more useful than others, the industry has improved to a point where there are no bad manufacturer sites,” said Galbraith. “This study again confirms that the more useful a site is, the more traffic it is likely to drive to dealerships. The automotive industry is providing better online shopping experiences to more shoppers than ever before, making manufacturer sites an increasingly important stop when researching a new vehicle to purchase.”

Reflecting the increased usefulness of manufacturer sites are the large number of consumers that include these sites in their shopping process. According to the J.D. Power and Associates 2005 New Autoshopper.com StudySM, 57 percent of new-vehicle buyers visit at least one manufacturer site before buying a new vehicle, and most visit several manufacturer sites.

“More new-vehicle shoppers are visiting manufacturer sites, and their experiences on these sites have never been better,” said Galbraith. “We expect to see even more emphasis on these sites as manufacturers compete to deliver the best total shopping experience possible and shoppers wade through the largest selection of models ever offered.”

The 2006 Manufacturer Web Site Evaluation Study – Wave 1 is based on evaluations by 11,800 new-vehicle shoppers who indicated they would be in the market for a new vehicle within the next 24 months.

videcormeum

I don't think this means a whole lot.

Acura has the best consumer site in my opinion.

M.

maz

Lexus seems to be #1 in all JD Power studies.

SteVTEC

heh, I don't even bother with the consumer sites. Usually I try to bypass that and go for the corporate/media sites if I can find them. pressroom.toyota.com, hondanews.com, etc

PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

I think Lexus.com is pretty o.k.

Now, the Japanese Lexus website is awesome!!! This is the one that should migrate into the U.S.

encore888

This is a study of Shopping not "Cool website"...I imagine that if the study was done based solely on attractiveness, et al...Lexus.com US would not likely win the award. However, in terms of ease of finding info...Lexus.com is very simple and easy to use.

I would not yet subscribe to the notion that Lexus and JD Power are joined at the hip; rather, I believe so far that Lexus.com is user-friendly enough to win the award.

Seen all those flash ads for Lexus.com that include 'customize your vehicle' easy shopping options? It might very well be that some of the sales success Lexus has had recently may be in part due to the 'ease' of using their website.

Of course, there's always room for improvement. And I haven't relied solely on the Lexus.com site for car shopping either, it was just a secondary source of info aside from other car research done elsewhere. Others on this board were big on the GS/IS allocations and I'm sure the site had some to do with that.

spwolf

it is useful and i think the main reason is that it clearly represents information you might need.
Most shoppers dont want to be bombarded with gazllion of infos.

I personally find Toyota site better, with more info.

picus

For the longest time Lexus.ca and Acura.ca didn't work with Firefox or Opera. I know it's the Canadian site and not mentioned in this study but that was a real pain in the butt.