ABSTRACT
In this modern age, the automobile industry has experienced a rapid expansion and; owning a car is no longer considered as a luxury but as a necessity. With the major automobile players evolving in this competitive industry together with an increase of automatic cars in Mauritius, customers have to consider a broad range of factors when purchasing automatic cars. The purpose of this study is to investigate upon the perceptions of customers towards automatic cars and explore the broad factors impacting upon the purchase of automatic cars in Mauritius. This paper reports upon the empirical findings of the customer survey through the survey method. The survey instruments have been administered to 120 respondents who possess a valid driving license. The findings were completely analysed and some recommendations were made to assist policy makers in developing strategies to encourage the interest of automatic cars among automotive customers. Data analysis has indicated that females have a strong preference for automatic cars. Empirical results have demonstrated that three significant factors relating to the price, durability and availability of spare parts strongly impact on the purchasing decision processes for automatic cars in Mauritius. Survey results have demonstrated that the car design and accessibility of the distributor can also influence the purchase behaviours of automatic cars. There is also enough empirical evidence in the research demonstrating that the ease of driving automatic cars will encourage customers for automatic cars in Mauritius. This research provides significant information on the various aspects that need to be highlighted in the booming automobile industry. The research provides valuable insights on consumers’ perception on automatic cars and the results also urge upon a reshaping of the perceptions of marketing and automobile managers to drive consumers to purchase automatic cars in Mauritius. The paper aims to fill up significant gap in the literature on buying behaviour for automatic in the context of emerging countries like Mauritius. The study remains one of few research works designed to address the factors that consumers will consider when purchasing automatic cars and this research represents a new crossroad for marketing practitioners and policy makers of automobile settings of developing nations.
Keywords
Factors, Purchasing Decision Processes, Automatic Cars, Mauritius