Study Confirms Car Shoppers Who Read Online Comparisons Happier, Better Looking

OK, half of our title isn't really proven yet, but half is. Read on to find out why one new study says that comparing cars online makes sense.

A new study conducted by RepairPal.com confirms what Torque News readers have known all along; Car buyers who do research online ahead of making a vehicle purchase are happier with the results after they get the new car home.

Using a simple Survey Monkey survey of a relatively small number of car shoppers (1,000) RepairPal.com asked new car owners to detail their pre-purchase preparation methods. Those who read car information like the head to head comparisons 2018 Toyota Camry Hybrid vs. Honda Accord Hybrid matchup Torque News published this week were found to be measurably happier with their purchase after the fact.

As the chart about shows, those buyers who compared vehicles pre-purchase reported they were more satisfied in all categories (or less unhappy in the minority cases of those who were not happy with their choice). Sometimes the obvious is proven by facts, as in this case, and sometimes myths are busted when facts are analyzed. In this case, since we make a living doing vehicle comparisons, we are happy to see evidence that what we provide has a value.

One thing Torque News is pretty certain of from the comments that appear under our stories is that our readers know their facts. It is not uncommon for a reader/commenter to point out an error or missed detail in our comparison stories and we frequently make corrections and thank our sharp-eyed readers for their help and patronage. We also know from years of reading comments under stories that there are two main groups of reader/commenters and we are happy to have both add their thoughts. The first are fans of one of the cars in the comparison who wish to strengthen the points made in the story supporting that vehicle as a good one to choose. The second, are our readers/commenters who are not fans of one of the vehicles and wish to point out or strengthen a weakness on the part of one of the compared vehicles. Both types of comments add to the dialogue and we have on many occasions created new focus stories to explore a given viewpoint. One example of a story we researched and reported on after comments from readers was a story that looked at Toyota's Scout navigation app compared to Android Auto. Many readers had commented under Toyota stories that Scout was preventing them from buying a Toyota and our research found fact-based evidence of why their concerns were valid.

There is no proof (yet) that Torque News readers who do online research are better looking than those shoppers who buy on a whim, but we have a strong suspicion it is the case. If a study proves the theory one way or the other we will report the facts.