How Important Is Vehicle Safety for Older Consumers in the Vehicle Purchase Process?
How Important Is Vehicle Safety for Older Consumers in the Vehicle Purchase Process?
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DOI：
10.1080/15389588.2012.740642
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发表时间：
2013-08-18
影响因子：
2
通讯作者：
Newstead, Stuart V.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Koppel, Sjaan;Clark, Belinda;Newstead, Stuart V.
目的：本研究旨在探讨老年消费者在购车过程中对汽车安全的重视程度。方法：在澳大利亚东部的维多利亚、新南威尔士、和昆士兰州最近购买了新车或二手车的人完成了一份关于其车辆购买过程的在线调查问卷。结果：当被要求列出汽车购买过程中最重要的三个考虑因素时（以开放式格式），老年消费者最有可能将价格列为他们最重要的考虑因素（43%）。同样，当看到一系列汽车因素（如价格、设计、澳大利亚新车评估计划（ANCAP）评级）时，老年消费者最有可能将价格视为最重要的汽车因素（36%）。当看到一系列车辆功能（如自动变速器，制动，安全气囊）时，当前研究中的老年消费者最有可能将防抱死制动系统（41%）确定为最重要的车辆功能，50%的老年消费者将安全相关的车辆功能确定为最优先的车辆功能（50%）。当被要求列出最多3个使车辆安全的因素时，目前研究中的老年消费者最有可能列出制动系统（35%），安全气囊（22%）和驾驶员的行为或技能（11%）。当被问及新车购买过程中安全性的影响时，三分之一的老年消费者表示所有新车都是安全的（33%），近一半的老年消费者认为他们的车辆比平均水平更安全（49%）。一个逻辑回归模型的开发，以预测的配置文件的老年消费者更有可能分配一个更高的优先级，以安全功能在车辆购买过程中。该模型预测，安全相关功能的重要性受到几个变量的影响，包括老年消费者的信念，他们可以保护自己和家人免受碰撞，他们的交通违规历史，以及他们是否有孩子。结论：这些发现与以前的研究结果一致，即，虽然老年消费者强调安全功能的重要性（即，安全带、安全气囊、制动系统），他们在购买车辆过程中往往低估安全性的作用，更有可能将车辆安全性等同于特定车辆安全功能或技术的存在，而不是车辆的碰撞安全性/测试结果或耐撞性。这项研究的结果为支持这一领域的进一步研究提供了基础，可供政策制定者、制造商和其他利益相关者使用，以更好地针对特定消费群体（如老年消费者）推广和宣传车辆安全功能。更有针对性的宣传活动可能有助于强调安全功能的价值及其在降低受伤/死亡风险方面的作用。如果老年消费者在购买车辆时更好地了解安全功能的好处，就可能进一步减少与机动车碰撞有关的伤亡。
Objective: This study aimed to investigate the importance of vehicle safety to older consumers in the vehicle purchase process.Methods: Older (n = 102), middle-aged (n = 791), and younger (n = 109) participants throughout the eastern Australian states of Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland who had recently purchased a new or used vehicle completed an online questionnaire about their vehicle purchase process.Results: When asked to list the 3 most important considerations in the vehicle purchase process (in an open-ended format), older consumers were mostly likely to list price as their most important consideration (43%). Similarly, when presented with a list of vehicle factors (such as price, design, Australasian New Car Assessment Program [ANCAP] rating), older consumers were most likely to identify price as the most important vehicle factor (36%). When presented with a list of vehicle features (such as automatic transmission, braking, air bags), older consumers in the current study were most likely to identify an antilock braking system (41%) as the most important vehicle feature, and 50 percent of older consumers identified a safety-related vehicle feature as the highest priority vehicle feature (50%). When asked to list up to 3 factors that make a vehicle safe, older consumers in the current study were most likely to list braking systems (35%), air bags (22%), and the driver's behavior or skill (11%). When asked about the influence of safety in the new vehicle purchase process, one third of older consumers reported that all new vehicles are safe (33%) and almost half of the older consumers rated their vehicle as safer than average (49%). A logistic regression model was developed to predict the profile of older consumers more likely to assign a higher priority to safety features in the vehicle purchasing process. The model predicted that the importance of safety-related features was influenced by several variables, including older consumers' beliefs that they could protect themselves and their family from a crash, their traffic infringement history, and whether they had children.Conclusions: These findings are consistent with previous research that suggests that, though older consumers highlight the importance of safety features (i.e., seat belts, air bags, braking), they often downplay the role of safety in their vehicle purchasing process and are more likely to equate vehicle safety with the presence of specific vehicle safety features or technologies rather than the vehicle's crash safety/test results or crashworthiness. The findings from this study provide a foundation to support further research in this area that can be used by policy makers, manufacturers, and other stakeholders to better target the promotion and publicity of vehicle safety features to particular consumer groups (such as older consumers). Better targeted campaigns may help to emphasize the value of safety features and their role in reducing the risk of injury/death. If older consumers are better informed of the benefits of safety features when purchasing a vehicle, a further reduction in injuries and deaths related to motor vehicle crashes may be realized.