Driving the news: A new Cox Automotive and Clarivoy study reveals that only 8% of dealership car sales were traceable in the CRM, while the remaining 92% never submitted an inquiry that resulted in a lead.
For context: The study analyzed 875,000 automotive sales and found that current tracking methods capture just 3.5% of actual customer touchpoints. While the average car buyer has 62 touchpoints during their shopping journey, most dealerships only typically track two.
Why it matters: This massive blind spot means dealers are making marketing decisions based on incomplete data. Nearly half of car shoppers start on third-party marketplaces, but these interactions often go untracked when customers eventually visit dealer websites or call directly.
What we're watching: With buyers now spending 95 days researching across multiple channels, the dealers who figure out multi-touch attribution first will have a huge advantage in capturing and converting that long shopping journey.
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