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How Millennials approach maintenance and repair
Millennial Canadians feel more helpless and don’t stay on top of maintenance and repair of their vehicle as much as other age groups, according to new data.
The Automotive Industries Association of Canada released information on how the Millennial cohort — those aged 25-44 — view vehicle maintenance and repair, along with data comparing them to the rest of Canadians over the age of 18.
The report, Understanding Millennials: A Quick Profile of Young Canadian Vehicle Owners 2021-2022, found that 42 per cent of Millennials either agreed or strongly agreed that they feel helpless when they bring their vehicle in for maintenance or repair needs. Meanwhile, 32 per cent of Canadians in other age groups felt the same way.
When looking at how they approach maintenance and repair, less than half (44 per cent) of Millennial Canadians believe they stay on top of everything — about three in five (59 per cent) of other age groups do the same.
Millennials are also shopping more online than other Canadians. One in five (19 per cent) said they’ve bought a vehicle part or fluid online, compared to 13 per cent of Canadians in other age groups. A quarter (26 per cent) of Millennials researched online but purchased vehicle parts or fluids in-store — one-fifth (19 per cent) of the rest of Canadians did the same.
The report also looks at how Millennials schedule maintenance and repair, who does the work for them, perceptions of independents versus dealers and more.
The full report is available from AIA Canada for free for members and $99 for non-members.
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I feel like this is self inflicted. A lot of them don’t want to spend the time to learn about their car. They definitely do not read the manual as seen by the questions asked online. And when we try and discuss it with them, they glaze over and expect it to be as simple as a 30 second TicTok.
This is a perfect opportunity to market our selves and educate Millennials on the benefits of maintenance. They may not use their vehicles as much as older generations so they may tend to forget about it. Manufacturers push maintenance intervals out longer which makes it harder to track for consumers. Our job is to take all of the unknown out of maintenance for them. Millennials also have a tendency to purchase higher end vehicles that have substantially more cost to maintenance. Again it is all about educating them.This goes a long way to building a relationship with a long time client.