Describe your audience and research decision. Makeform builds an editable car buying survey with screening, preference, budget, timing, and dealership-experience questions.
Send responses to Google Sheets, Slack, and Zapier.
Sample prompts for the survey builder
Choose a research goal, adapt the prompt, or send it to the builder. The structure is an example, not a live result.
Audience
Consumers in a dealership's sales area
Format
Mobile-friendly survey with branching
Prompt size
349 chars
Example survey structure
Mobile-friendly survey with branching
When do you expect to buy or lease?
New, used, or either?
What is your target total price range?
Which features are essential?
How may a dealership contact you?
Suggested analysis tags
Buying within 3 months
New vehicle shoppers
Used vehicle shoppers
Ask purchase timing first to separate active shoppers from distant interest.
Step 1
Define
audience, market, and decision to inform
Step 2
Build
screeners, branches, scales, and open responses
Step 3
Share
send one link across your chosen channels
Step 4
Segment
compare intent, budgets, and preferences
Better buying research
Connect preferences to purchase timing, budget, and shopping stage so results can be compared by meaningful shopper groups.
Show detailed questions to active shoppers and lighter questions to future buyers.
Compare price bands, timelines, body styles, and rating scales across segments.
One open question can reveal unexpected trade-offs or deal breakers.
Four practical studies
Choose one primary use, then remove questions that do not support it.
Compare body styles, price bands, brands, and powertrains within a defined time window.
Test reactions to a model, trim, feature package, or price point.
Learn where people research and what moves a vehicle onto their shortlist.
Follow up after an inquiry, visit, or test drive to understand selection, pricing clarity, service, and reasons for delaying.
Survey workflow
Start with the action the results should inform, then collect only the necessary context.
Choose inventory planning, consumer research, experience feedback, or future follow-up.
Remove assumptions, define time periods, and balance answer choices.
Show financing or EV questions only when the respondent's earlier answers make them relevant.
Compare active and future shoppers, new and used buyers, budget ranges, or first-time and repeat buyers before acting on averages.
Question design
Match each question format to the result you need to analyze.
Field guide
Keep the sections that support your goal, and make identifying questions optional unless essential.
Eligibility and timing
Set a defined window and separate active buyers, future shoppers, recent purchasers, and people with no current plans.
Vehicle preferences
Ask about body style, size, passenger needs, powertrain, and brands considered. Distinguish acceptable options from a first choice.
Budget and payment
Use labeled ranges for total price or monthly payment. Financing, leasing, cash, and trade-in plans add context.
Research behavior
Separate where the search began from sources that shaped the shortlist, such as listings, reviews, friends, and dealership visits.
Decision factors
Rate a concise list, then require respondents to choose top factors and describe one unresolved concern.
Profile and follow-up
Use household, location, and current-vehicle context only when relevant. Keep contact permission separate from research questions.
Related tools
Broaden the study beyond one purchase or focus it on brand and audience research.
Compare attributes and trade-offs across consumer segments.
Open toolStudy discovery, evaluation, purchase, and post-purchase habits.
Open toolBuild a broader demand or competitive research questionnaire.
Open toolFAQ
Answers for automotive researchers.
It asks how consumers search for, compare, finance, and choose vehicles. Topics include timing, condition, budget, body style, powertrain, features, research channels, dealership experience, and barriers. Its scope should match one research decision.
Ask timing, stage, new versus used, body style, powertrain, budget, payment approach, trade-in plans, brands, features, research sources, and top factors. Add relevant dealership questions and one open concern question.
Use the shortest survey that supports the decision. A post-visit pulse may need five to eight questions; a market study needs more. Test it on a phone and hide irrelevant branches.
Use neutral language and balanced choices. Do not frame one fuel type, brand, financing method, or outcome as better. Randomize long lists and offer not sure, none, or other when appropriate.
Label separate ranges clearly. Total price supports affordability analysis; monthly payment reflects loan assumptions. Ask only what you will use and avoid exact calculations.
Yes. Branch to used-car age and history, EV range and charging, or new-car trim questions. Keep timing, budget, and decision factors shared for comparison.
Yes. Makeform supports unlimited free forms and responses, so you can generate, edit, publish, and collect survey responses without a response cap. A paid plan is only for removing the Makeform badge; it is not required to keep collecting responses.
Only when follow-up supports the purpose. Put contact fields and permission in an optional closing section. For anonymous feedback, avoid identifying fields and review connected workflows.
One research decision.
