In the US, nearly 60 per cent of the total buying in the automobile segment is influenced by information available on the Internet. The Indian Net user may not be as savvy, but he is getting there.

At least that is what rediff.com executives like to believe. The portal has come up with the results of India Online Auto Users Trends -- 2004, an online survey conducted in collaboration with the Chetna Institute of Management & Research in Mumbai. The survey has thrown up some interesting facts.

Television is still the most trusted source of information on automobiles followed by print.

However, Internet is fast catching up. Of the total respondents to the online research, 36 per cent said they trusted TV for information on cars. While 33 per cent of the respondents voted for print ads, 31 per cent said they were influenced by the information available on the Net.

Among the car brands where the Internet played an important role in influencing customers, were Alto, Zen, Esteem, Optra and Baleno.

The list shows that Maruti Udyog Ltd has been successfully using the Internet to reach its consumers. The study reflected that MUL, which advertises its brands on the Net, has been able to convert prospects into customers.

The study was conducted on a sample size of 30,000 Internet users of which 8,841 responses were considered valid. The survey was carried out in 533 cities in India. The analysis of the study shows that 55 per cent of the valid entries to the survey already owned cars while another 53 per cent were planning to buy one in the next one year.

Among the car owners, 63 per cent said that they wanted to change their car in the next three years. Though the Segment B cars (Zen, Santro, Indica, Palio) dominated all the income groups, cars in Segment C (Esteem, Cielo, Indigo, Honda City, Accent) were the most favoured for people planning their future purchases.

In this segment, Hyundai Accent and Honda City were the most popular choices for future buys.

The study also made an interesting revelation about automobile consumer behaviour. It showed that 28 per cent of the respondents clicked on the banner ads for cars. Of these, 6 per cent were actually influenced and were induced to buy a car based on the information available on the Net.

The survey findings suggest that the Internet users are affluent as 70 per cent of the respondents had a monthly income of more than Rs 25,000.