The traditional marketing funnel assumes buyers move in a neat, step-by-step progression towards a purchase. Reality is far less orderly. Car buyers continuously move between research, comparison and validation. This requires a different kind of market presence.
Every marketing course begins with it: the funnel. At the top: awareness. Then interest, consideration, intent. At the bottom: purchase. A funnel through which customers supposedly move, from broad curiosity to signing on the dotted line.
It is a useful metaphor for campaign planning. But it no longer reflects how people in Europe buy cars today.
What the data shows
In the United Kingdom in 2025, 95% of active car buyers used online search platforms. The average buyer visited four. The process lasted an average of 48 days (MOTORS, 2025).
The Belgian Google/Kantar study from 2024 shows the same pattern at source level. Some 91% of car buyers conducted online research, using multiple channels simultaneously:
-
79% used Search;
-
66% used video;
-
64% used manufacturer websites;
-
34% used dealer websites;
-
16% used comparison sites;
-
11% used social media.
These are not sequential layers in a funnel. They are parallel sources, consulted side by side, with buyers constantly moving between them.
As early as 2013, Google and Millward Brown reported an average of 24 research touchpoints per buyer, with 72% of search sessions involving cross-shopping — buyers considering multiple models, brands and sellers simultaneously. Thirteen years on, that pattern has intensified rather than simplified.
In 2024, TikTok introduced the term ‘popcorn thinking’ to describe this behaviour: buyers who jump between inspiration, comparison, validation and doubt, like kernels popping in different directions. The term originates from a commercial white paper, but the behaviour itself has been visible in research data for over a decade.
Why the process has become cyclical
Three forces make the journey non-linear.
-
An abundance of information. A buyer searching for a used car in 2005 had access to only a handful of sources: a motoring magazine, the dealer, perhaps a mechanically inclined friend. Today, there are thousands of reviews, YouTube comparisons, forum discussions, platform-specific price differences and AI-generated summaries. More data does not necessarily create more certainty — it creates more to compare.
-
Parallel comparison. Whereas the funnel assumes a linear process (first research, then compare, then decide), buyers operate in parallel. They may consider three models, three sellers and multiple financing options at once. Each new piece of information reshapes the entire picture.
-
Validation that never stops. In 2025, Cox Automotive found that used-car buyers spent an average of 14 hours and 38 minutes on their purchase, with more than seven hours online. This unfolds across dozens of small moments over weeks: a YouTube review at breakfast, a price comparison on the train, a conversation with a family member on Sunday.
The showroom is no longer the starting point
The clearest sign of this shift is the decline in dealership visits.
In the United States, buyers visited an average of 4.1 dealers before purchasing a car in 2005 (NADA, FTC Workshop 2016). By 2016, this had dropped to 1.3. European data shows the same trend: in the BOVAG Customer Journey Car 2025, 53% of Dutch used-car buyers visited only one dealer. The 2024 IfA/AutoScout24 study shows that German buyers now complete most research online before visiting, and that the physical search has become significantly shorter.
One dealer. This does not mean buyers are less critical. It means they have already formed a shortlist before leaving home. The dealer visit has shifted from exploration to verification: the test drive, the inspection, the final negotiation.
Where the funnel once placed the dealership visit mid-journey, it now sits near the end. Everything before it is not a tidy sequence, but a network of sources navigated in a personal order.
The new logic: shortlist, validation, reconsideration
If summarised in one sentence: buyers create a shortlist, validate their choices, and then reconsider.
-
The shortlist is formed via marketplaces and aggregators (AutoScout24, mobile.de, leboncoin, Auto Trader), Google searches and, since 2024, AI responses from ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. This typically takes a few days.
-
The validation phase is the longest: YouTube reviews of models, forum discussions about known issues, customer reviews of sellers, conversations with knowledgeable acquaintances, and checks of certifications and quality marks. This phase can take weeks.
-
The reconsideration is where most funnel models fall short. A buyer close to purchase may encounter new information that introduces doubt, discover an alternative model, or find a better deal elsewhere. The process partially resets.
In iVendi’s 2024 survey of 1,000 British used-car buyers, 61% cited friends and family as the most important influence — well ahead of online reviews (31%). This influence peaks during the reconsideration phase, just before the final decision.
What this means for marketing
For marketers in automotive, platforms or marketplaces, this shift has clear implications.
The first is that success is not about winning a single moment, but about remaining relevant repeatedly. A buyer who compares your price today may watch reviews tomorrow and revisit your site — or a competitor’s — the next day. Visibility in only one phase means absence in most of the journey.
The second is that each stage requires different signals. In the shortlist phase, price and offer matter. In validation, reviews, certifications, customer experiences and transparency about vehicle history are critical. In reconsideration, accessibility matters: can the buyer easily reach you with a final question?
The third is that conversion metrics capture only the final step. A buyer who converts may have spent weeks evaluating your company beforehand. Much of that decision-making process is invisible in analytics. Focusing only on conversion means optimising for the smallest part of the journey.
Conclusion
The funnel was useful when buyers had limited sources and followed a single path. That era has passed. What has replaced it is not a new funnel, but a network of nodes that buyers visit in their own sequence — often repeatedly, sometimes over months.
The key question is no longer “where am I invisible in the funnel?” but “at which nodes in the network am I absent?” That shift demands a different approach to presence, content and measurement.
Those who focus only on conversion miss most of the journey — because most of it happens elsewhere.
This article is based on research by MOTORS (UK, 2025), Google/Kantar Belgium (2024), Google/Millward Brown (2013), Cox Automotive Car Buyer Journey Study (2025), NADA (FTC Workshop 2016), BOVAG Car Customer Journey (2025), IfA/AutoScout24 Used Car Study (2024), iVendi Used Vehicle Buyer Survey (2024) and TikTok Automotive Marketing White Paper (2024).