Diseño de la investigación

The Netherlands has a total car fleet of seven and a half million cars. Yearly, about 2.3 million cars change from one owner to the next (Table 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3). Ideal-typically four different routes can be distinguished to show how consumers acquire a new or used car (Figure 4.1). Though these four routes could be extended with more types, the purpose of depicting these routes is that they will be used to indicate that each of these routes is structured by a specific system of provision which influences the environmental information provision.

The tables and figures show that, not surprisingly, the far majority of passenger cars is sold on the second-hand car market. Roughly 80% of the consumers who purchase a car acquire a used car. Most of the used cars are sold via independent car companies (3,400 registered) and official

Table 4.1. The Dutch car fleet in 2007 (RDC).

Owners: Absolute Relative

Private 6,351,865 83.60% Lease company 556,334 7.30% Car company 343,076 4.50% SME 232,126 3.10% Fleet owner 72,133 0.90% Rental 36,823 0.50% Total 7,592,357 100%

Table 4.2. New car sales in the Netherlands in 2007 (RDC).

Sold from official car dealers to: Absolute Relative

Private 215,142 42.70% Lease company 160,571 31.80% Car company 46,743 9.30% SME 37,071 7.40% Rental 30,187 6.00% Fleet owner 11,855 2.40% Total 501,569 100%

Table 4.3. Second hand car sales in the Netherlands in 2007 (Bovag).

Sold from: Absolute Relative

Private owners 841,960 44.41%

Independent car company (‘non-dealer’) 693,643 36.59%

Official car dealer 360,246 19.00%

Total 1,895,849 100%

car dealers (3,000 registered)48_{. The internet is by far the most used information source for finding}

a second-hand car. Typically, a consumer will search on a car vending site, and will also visit a local car dealer or independent car company for a test-drive. The rise in car vending sites has also resulted in an increase of consumer to consumer sales. These car sites have made it much easier for private consumer to sell and buy cars without third-party interference. Currently, one third of all cars in the Netherlands are sold directly from one private owner to another. This percentage, however, also includes cars that change from one owner to the next without complicated sale processes (inheritance, gifts or sales between family members and friends).

Approximately 20% of the cars sold are new cars. In the Netherlands by far the dominant route through which these new cars are sold is via ‘official car dealers’. These dealers are highly structured by the corresponding car brands and as such differ from the independent car companies (which sell cars from varying car producers). Most automotive distribution models are based on the franchising model in which strict agreements between the car manufacturer and the local car dealers are in order. At the national level the territory of a dealer is determined. The local car dealers also receive training and support at the national level.

The average age of new car purchasers is higher when compared to used cars; the average age of new car purchasers is around 53 years old. This is also the result of the higher purchase price of new cars. Furthermore, the showroom has a much more prominent place in this sales route as

48 _{Official car dealers are brand specific dealers who, as a general rule, are linked to one single manufacturer.}

Independent car companies sell cars from different car brands (in the Netherlands these are almost always used cars).

Consumer

Consumer Consumer

Official car dealer

Consumer Lease-company Car importer Consumer Employer New car

Second hand car

35%

45% 11% 8%

Independent or official car dealer

Figure 4.1. Ideal-typical routes for acquiring a car (percentages indicate approximate shares of total car sales).

practically every consumer who purchases a new car visits at least one showroom.49 _{Also, more}

than with second hand cars, up-to-date information about the car is provided to consumers in the showroom (predominantly brand oriented in-store marketing and leaflets).

The final route is the route via leasing companies. Leasing has a very prominent and specific place in the Netherlands. 32% of all new cars sold are sold to leasing companies. As such they have a significant influence on the automotive production-consumption chain. Lease cars are used primarily for business travel and commuting. Though lease cars are not necessarily new cars for the consumers who acquire the car, almost always they are bought new by the leasing company (the average car age of the lease fleet in 2006 was 22 months old). Leasing comes in different forms, with operational lease being the largest lease formula by far (74%). In operational lease the leasing company remains the owner of the car and the lessee, which is often a company from the private sector, receives the car for temporary use. It is common that the fleet owner of the employer makes available a limited number of cars from which the employee can make a choice. As such, the employee’s car choice is structured more by the provision of the fleet owners and lease companies than the individual choice of employee.

In short, the descriptions indicate that the car purchasing practice is structured differently in each of the four routes. In each of the ideal type a different system of provision is present. The relevance of this typology is that the difference in the routes is also reflected in the search routines of the consumers, and in the consumption junctions between consumers and producers. This also has implications for the question how environmental information enters the automotive production-consumption chains. As the access points and the consumption junctions in the automotive chains are different, so is the environmental information provision. However, before the environmental information provision at these different consumption junctions will described, first we turn towards the purchasing practice.