CHENNAI: Indian car buyers like to try out the maximum number of test drives before buying the vehicle of their choice. At 3.1, Indian buyers top the list followed by the Chinese (2.7), Americans (2.3), Germans (2.1) and the British (1.9). Those are the findings of a recent study by consultancy firm Bain & Co, which tracked the behaviour of car buyers between digital and offline experiences across different auto markets globally.The study titled 'The Future of Car Sales Is Omnichannel' -also found that car buyers in India and China have more touch points throughout (about 7.5 and 7 on average, respectively, compared with about 6 in mature markets) and assign different importance to individual touch points. Customers in China and India are also more likely to know what they want before they go in for a purchase, with up to 75 per cent of all premium customers saying they were fully determined on brand, model and price before visiting the dealer.The study has shown that car buyers across different geographies show very different affinity for digital experience versus offline experience while buying a new car. Consumers in developing economies like China and India generally show a strong affinity for online touch points, but they tend to start their buying episodes offline, and more than a third start at the dealer. In the US, 54 per cent of episodes start online, and in the UK the percentage is nearer 60 per cent.Their online and offline preferences also determine other consumer behaviour, including time taken to decide on what car to buy. Buyers in the US are the fastest to decide according to the study (8 weeks on average, 51 per cent in less than a month). Germans take more time (10 weeks, with 47 per cent taking between one and three months), followed by Indians (11 weeks, with 54 per cent taking between one and three months).In developed markets, younger buyers take longer to decide, while in China and India differences among age groups were less significant, said the study. The study also found that premium car customers like to engage more with dealerships than mass-market customers.“Premium car customers have about 25 per cent more interactions during their buying episodes than mass-market customers,“ said the Bain study.In contrast, non-premium customers are less decided on specific brands, with 10-15 per cent of non-premium buyers in Germany, the UK and the US completely open to brands, compared with only about 5 per cent of premium buyers who are similarly flexible.Also, customers in the non-premium segment do more test drives, buy more stock vehicles and rely more heavily on advice from the dealer -perhaps because they are more price-sensitive and thus more likely to accept the most attractive offer, said the study.