Despite all the reports about customers’ quest for saving time, car dealers are still losing business due to long wait times for everything from F&I to test drives, according to a new study by CDK.

The positive news is that dealers are working to speed up their processes, upping customer satisfaction accordingly.

“One of the glowing success metrics this year’s study uncovered is that car buyers are moving through the entire process faster than they have before,” analysts write in  CDK’s fifth annual Friction Points Study.

Nearly two-thirds (61%) of shoppers say they completed the process in two hours or less. That compares to 54% last year and surpasses the previous high, 57% in 2021.

The latest results “are a great accomplishment” that shouldn’t be overlooked, Anu Roberts, CDK’s senior marketing director, tells WardsAuto.

That said, the downside of the findings is that some departments didn’t do as well as in previous years.

“We saw some regression this year,” including the time it took to get a test drive and time spent waiting to get into an F&I office, says Roberts. “Those jumped out at me.”

The top six waiting culprits were test drives, price negotiations, vehicle selection, financing, paperwork and checking incentives.

The report also cited too much time spent waiting for a salesperson’s assistance. The dealership sector’s high turnover of sales staffers is a suspect in that case. “It’s possible green sales teams are having a harder time delivering to today’s customers,” the report surmises.

The study field work, done in September and November of 2024 polled 406 dealers and 1,281 consumers who bought a car within the previous six months.

The two groups differ on time perception: Dealers think they completed deals faster than buyers.

Nearly 50% of dealers estimate buyers took one to two hours at the store. But only 40% of buyers say it took that long.  

Customers are more forgiving if a deal takes between two and three hours. Taking more than three hours, though, is the tipping point for dissatisfaction.

“Luckily, only one in 10 buyers took that long, but that still means dealers aren’t likely to see repeat business or recommendations from that group,” the study says.

Of course, the clock isn’t ticking when consumers do online vehicle shopping and research. Customers who do prep work digitally before heading to a dealership can speed up the entire transaction.

Still, buying a car can be complex. Things can bog down at any step, often depending on the customer’s circumstances.

Negotiating vehicle prices, dickering over trade-in values and lining up financing for the credit-challenged can take more time than either the dealer or the customer prefers.

Waiting for Test Drives

Fifty-five percent of shoppers said they had to wait to take a test drive, up from 41% last year.

That’s meaningful because 78% of surveyed buyers said the test drive alone persuaded them to buy a vehicle.

A few respondents report arriving at a dealership for a test drive only to find a dealership employee had driven the vehicle home or it was “off-site.” 

Conversely, one respondent mentions arriving at the store at the appointed time to find three options ready to test drive. They recommend the dealership.

Another customer turnoff involved selecting the vehicle they wanted to buy. More than a third (36%) said they waited for a salesperson to find the model they wanted, up from 29% last year.

The report shows an increase in the wait time to secure a purchase price – rising from 39% in 2023 to 43%.

But clocking a deal is one thing. What happens during that time is important, too.   

“It’s not just speed, it’s also the quality of the interaction,” Roberts says. ““Speed and quality go together.”

Employee Friction Points

The study isn’t limited to customer pain points. It also offers dealers points that lead to staff dissatisfaction and, perhaps, defection.

Here are their main gripes:

• F&I managers: Lack of full integration of systems such as customer-relationship management, dealership management systems and digital retailing.
• Salespeople: Duplicate leads in the CRM, waiting for the desk manager decisions and inaccurate online price quotes.
• Sales managers: Less time to coach, time lost re-checking incentives and increased re-entry of information.