Car buyers shun green issues

Although green concerns continually make headlines in the news, a new survey has found that car buyers are not concerned with these factors when buying a new car. According to Auto Trader, just ten per cent of motorists consider 'environmentally friendly' an important factor when selecting a car. Motorists are far more concerned about price, which is the most important factor (100 per cent), followed by looks (71 per cent) and then reliability (59 per cent), safety (38 per cent) and comfort (21 per cent).

The findings showed that 70 per cent of motorists believe the government and car manufacturers were at fault for not doing enough to ensure more cars are environmentally friendly. Awareness of alternatively fuelled vehicles is very high, with over 95 per cent of motorists knowing that LPG stands for Liquid Petroleum Gas and more than 80 per cent were aware that a Hybrid car was a vehicle with a petrol and an electric engine.

Despite this, 65 per cent of drivers currently use petrol vehicles, with over 30 per cent using diesel and just three per cent using LPG, Bio-ethanol or Hybrid cars.

Jonathan Williams, head of marketing at Auto Trader, said: “These findings show that the nation is unsure of the benefits of alternative fuels, and therefore do not trust them. “Motorists are not clear of the costs and efficiency of environmentally friendly cars. The UK motoring public is generally in agreement with the need to clean up our cars but it is clear that motorists will not sacrifice their safety and comfort to do this.”