Santa Monica, California - Online auto dealer Edmunds.com recently di a survey of more than 1000 US drivers and discovered that Americans feel buying a car or bakkie is more stressful than getting married, going on a first date or watching their team in a tight championship game.
And that's across the board, according to Edmunds.com CEO Avi Steinlauf.
"We don't see any difference looking at gender, age, geography or any other demographic variances," he said.
The survey found:
Nine out of 10 motorists would be happiest buying a vehicle if it came at a set price, with no need to negotiate.
Online resources were the highest-rated sources of car advice across all demographics.
American car shoppers loathe haggling over price.
In fact, 83 percent of respondents said they preferred to avoid it. Among younger buyers that figure rose to 91 percent, compared to 78 percent of Baby Boomers.
One in five Americans (21 percent) would rather go without sex for a month than haggle over the price of a car.
Nearly half (44 percent) would give up Facebook for a month and 29 percent would do without their smartphone for a weekend if it meant avoiding the negotiation.
One in three (33 percent) would rather go to the traffic department, do their taxes or sit in the middle seat on an aeroplane than go through the process of buying a car.
Between the Generation Gap and Mars versus Venus, Americans disagree on who to trust when it comes to car-buying advice.
Women are twice as likely as men to seek advice from a family member who is not their parent.
Baby Boomers are twice as likely as under-30s to trust their mechanic.
Baby Boomers are also three times more likely than young drivers to say they have never received good car buying advice.
But friends are consistently rated as the worst source for car buying advice and are twice as likely to be cited as a source of bad advice than a source of good advice.