According to research commissioned by General Motors, there will be a 40% increase in female new car buyers over the next 15 years in Western Europe and they will become the driving force for any expansion in the new car market.
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Communications director Collette Dunkley said the Vauxhall brand (used for all GM models in the UK) was in the process of making significant changes to its future model strategy and selling processes to reflect the changing market conditions.
Vauxhall’s UK chairman and managing director Kevin Wale, added: “We must respond to this information and whilst we can provide the right models with the right image for male and female customers we must address the future selling process through our dealerships.
“We are already looking at ways to pilot in a few initial dealership new selling approaches designed to suit female buyers. Men are full of testosterone when they buy news cars and look forward in most cases to haggling with dealership sales staff.
“Women are different; they do not want the ‘hard sell’. They like to build relationships with the sales staff, think about all their buying options before committing to a purchase. They buy with their brain not with their heart.”
The segment in which the Astra Sports Hatch competes accounts for 100,000 UK sales a year. Vauxhall expects the new three-door Astra will sell upwards of 12,500 units in a full year, 3,500 more than the previous model.
Total UK sales of the new Astra models will be around 91,000 units in 2005. Diesel sales are expected to account for 42% with two thirds of customer being fleet and business users.
However, 60% of Sports Hatch buyers are expected to be retail customers.
