Helping New Drivers in Ontario Buy Their First Car

The purpose of this study is to understand the difficulties of individuals who are buying and maintaining their first car. Research includes a literature review, extensive secondary research, a set of interviews with thirteen participants and a focus group that further explored the difficulties of taking on car buying and ownership. Defined in the research stage were concerns when it comes to financial preparedness, comfort level of navigating this space without much experience or knowledge, and having to put plenty of trust in external resources to successfully complete this task. This uncovered the extensive amount of internal resource use that users needed in their search for a car and experience owning one, often relying heavily on trusted sources within their circles to make progress. This project aims to take these insights, and develop a set of solutions to enhance the experience on both sides of the journey. The solutions come in both physical and digital channels. The physical solution implementation aims to help connect users to a service that meets their needs, while the digital solutions aim to build on this by giving users a platform to enhance and oversee their ownership experience. These implementations combine to provide car buyers more tools in making an informed decision, and giving car owners an empowering platform to support their ability in finding, buying and maintaining their first vehicle.