Ford and Chevrolet were the big winners in activity on AutoTrader.com in October. Models from the two brands captured all of the top 5 spots on AutoTrader.com’s monthly Trend Engine report of the 20 most-viewed new vehicles on the site. Chevrolet and Ford were also the No. 1 and No. 2 most-viewed brands of new cars, respectively, on AutoTrader.com for the month.
“Both Ford and Chevy are riding waves of great publicity fueled by high reliability rankings, innovative marketing campaigns, incentives like the GM 60-day guarantee program and strong products,” said AutoTrader.com President and CEO Chip Perry. “Consumers are responding to these messages and giving these cars a good look on our site, which should result in continued positive results for these brands.”
New and Used Trucks Continue Rebound
The Ford F-150 nabbed the No. 1 spots on both the new and used most-viewed lists on AutoTrader.com in October, marking a continued resurgence for both new and used trucks and SUVs that has resulted in rising prices and tight inventories of these vehicles. All trucks and SUVs in both the Top 20 new and used lists saw average price increases month over month.
On the new vehicle list, average prices for trucks and SUVs in October increased by mostly single digit percentages compared to September, except for the new Ford F-150, which saw an almost 20% average price increase month over month, and the new Chevrolet Silverado, which saw almost a 14% average price increase month over month.
On the used vehicle list, almost every truck and SUV registered double digit price increases in October compared to September, with the used Chevrolet Tahoe leading the used-vehicle average price increases, up 27% month over month. Used Ford F-150s and used Dodge Rams also saw month over month average price increases of more than 20%.
“There continues to be renewed interest in these larger vehicles from consumers who need these vehicles for their work, because they have large families or some other true utility reason,” said Perry. “In the past two years, record gas prices and a challenged economy caused many of these people to put off purchase of a new or used truck or SUV. But for car buyers who really need large vehicles, they can only put off the purchase for so long. This rising demand coupled with low inventories could lead to continued price increases on these vehicles over the coming months.”
New Muscle Cars Remain Hot
On AutoTrader.com’s most-viewed new car list, muscle cars remained popular, with some clocking big jumps in views month over month. In October, the new Chevrolet Camaro dropped from the No. 1 most-viewed spot, which it had held since April of this year, to No. 2. The new Ford Mustang came in at No. 3 in October, down from No. 2 in September.
Other muscle cars saw big jumps in views. The new Chevrolet Corvette grabbed the No. 5 most-viewed spot in October, up from No. 13 in September of this year. The new Dodge Challenger also saw a big gain, entering the new-vehicle top 20 list at No. 11, up from No. 25 in September.
“Manufacturers have really hit on something with these vehicles,” said Perry. “Perhaps they are a throw back to simpler times and people are reacting to that or there’s a segment of the population that’s tired of denying themselves fun and exciting things due to the recession. Whatever the reason, people are looking at these cars on our site and sales have been correspondingly strong.”
Renewed interest in both new and used cars among consumers, coupled with strong marketing campaigns promoting the AutoTrader.com brand, have resulted in another year-over-year traffic increase to the site. In October, AutoTrader.com logged 13.6 million unique monthly visitors, up 6% from the 12.9 million unique monthly visitors to the site in October of 2008. Also in October, two of the MLB teams that AutoTrader.com sponsors – the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies – made it to the World Series, which generated more than 75M additional consumer impressions.
“Our site traffic has continued to increase compared to last year and we believe that trend will continue as car shoppers migrate to the internet to shop for and compare vehicles,” said Perry. “Consumers tell us over and over that the internet is the No. 1 medium from which they get information about vehicles and find dealers they want to do business with. We’ll continue to work on solutions that make the vehicle shopping process easy for consumers while also making it easier and more efficient for dealers and private sellers to market their vehicles to the millions of people visiting our site every month.”
AutoTrader.com, created in 1997 and headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., is the Internet’s leading auto classifieds marketplace and consumer information website. AutoTrader.com aggregates in a single location millions of new cars, used cars and certified pre-owned cars from thousands of auto dealers and private owners. The site attracts about 15 million unique monthly visitors. Through innovative merchandising functionality such as multiple photos, videos, detailed descriptions and comprehensive research and compare tools, AutoTrader.com unites new and used car buyers and sellers online to improving the way people research, locate and advertise vehicles. AutoTrader.com is a majority-owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises. The venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is also an investor. For more information, please visit www.autotrader.com.
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