February Traffic on AutoTrader.Com Shows Hyundai’s Assurance Campaign Pays Off
Increase of Interest in Hyundai Sonata, Pontiac G8 Show Marketing Matters
“Hyundai’s Assurance Program shows that there is still an interest in buying cars, and that the challenges in new-car sales are in-part driven by uncertainty around the economy,” said AutoTrader.com President and CEO
Another winner this month was the Pontiac G8 sedan, which makes its debut on AutoTrader.com’s list of the 20 most-viewed new vehicles at number 14. General Motors has been promoting the G8 during the NCAA basketball finals, high-profile, high-engagement events that provide Pontiac a platform by which it can target a large number of buyers.
“With successful repetition of advertising messages targeting the right media buy, companies can break through the clutter and stimulate interest among consumers, even in a poor sales market,” continued Perry. “AutoTrader.com has adopted a similar advertising strategy in 2009, spreading our advertising spend across multiple high-engagement events, including the NBA All-Star Game and Daytona 500, rather than just focusing on a single ad buy, to bring consumers to our site and offer more value to our customers.”
Other new vehicles that saw an increase in interest levels from 2008 included Nissan’s new 370Z sports car, which saw a 165.41% increase in views from the 350Z that it replaces, and Honda’s Pilot SUV and Odyssey minivan, which saw increases of 91% and 36%, respectively, year-over-year.
Used Vehicle Market Grows in Tough Economy
The used vehicle market continued to show improvements begun in January of this year, with most models either flat or up slightly in terms of views on AutoTrader.com, though average asking prices decreased slightly. For example, interest levels in the Dodge Ram 1500 full-size pick-up increased 22%, though average asking prices fell 11%. Similarly, used Infiniti G-Series sedans and coupes saw interest levels rise 14% while average asking prices decreased 11%.
“The used market will continue to improve in the first half of this year,” said Perry. “We should start seeing asking prices for used vehicles leveling off as some consumers continue to choose pre-owned over new in light of concerns about the economy.”
On both the new and used lists, the continued revival in popularity of large models like the Ford F-150, the Chevy Silverado and Tahoe, the Dodge Ram and the Toyota Tacoma speak to the need for these vehicles among many U.S. car buyers.
“When gas prices spiked last year, people who didn’t really need these large vehicles sold them and bought more fuel efficient models, while those who did need them stopped buying, but that didn’t mean their need went away,” said Perry. “If your job or lifestyle demands one of these larger vehicles, you can put off the purchase for a while, but there really isn’t a good replacement for these types of vehicles. It will be interesting to see what lessons consumers and manufacturers learned from last year and how those lessons are applied going forward to address any future gas price spikes.”
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MAKE MODEL Rank Rank Change Avg Price Avg Price Change
02/09 02/08 from - 02/09 - 02/08 from
02/08 02/08
New Cars
Ford F-150 1 3 -6.07% $33,242.28 $32,278.83 2.98%
Honda Accord 2 2 -12.09% $25,871.68 $25,294.60 2.28%
Honda Civic 3 6 -1.12% $20,895.57 $19,932.50 4.83%
Dodge Challenger 4 #N/A #N/A $37,090.99 #N/A #N/A
Chevrolet Silverado
1500 5 1 -40.34% $31,848.41 $29,791.94 6.90%
Dodge Ram 1500 6 18 52.21% $33,851.53 $31,547.73 7.30%
Ford Mustang 7 4 -26.23% $32,495.91 $30,579.24 6.27%
Toyota Camry 8 5 -24.75% $24,173.57 $24,787.57 -2.48%
Nissan Altima 9 7 -19.38% $24,544.49 $24,554.65 -0.04%
Jeep Wrangler 10 10 7.12% $27,337.18 $27,213.44 0.45%
Nissan 350Z/370Z 11 60 165.41% $35,657.84 $34,869.59 2.26%
Chevrolet Corvette 12 15 14.15% $60,925.46 $60,626.19 0.49%
Honda Odyssey 13 28 35.71% $33,951.21 $32,952.66 3.03%
Pontiac G8 14 #N/A #N/A $31,949.60 #N/A #N/A
Honda Pilot 15 58 90.64% $35,333.39 $32,520.87 8.65%
Toyota Tacoma 16 12 -20.12% $25,141.20 $25,030.00 0.44%
Chevrolet Tahoe 17 14 -17.35% $47,709.91 $44,694.42 6.75%
Toyota Corolla 18 26 13.44% $18,718.62 $17,852.89 4.85%
Ford F-250 19 25 9.06% $42,261.61 $43,016.99 -1.76%
Hyundai Sonata 20 82 142.92% $21,828.39 $21,616.60 0.98%
Used Cars
Ford F-150 1 1 9.91% $16,495.26 $18,367.08 -10.19%
Chevrolet Silverado
1500 2 3 6.95% $16,082.87 $18,512.59 -13.12%
Ford Mustang 3 2 0.19% $16,063.85 $17,481.26 -8.11%
Honda Accord 4 4 -0.13% $15,119.13 $16,433.46 -8.00%
Dodge Ram 1500 5 6 21.93% $14,898.53 $16,807.43 -11.36%
Infiniti G35/G37 6 7 14.43% $20,380.81 $22,788.56 -10.57%
Honda Civic 7 5 -8.90% $13,512.40 $14,282.79 -5.39%
Ford F-250 8 8 6.99% $20,305.38 $24,303.69 -16.45%
Chevrolet Tahoe 9 11 9.51% $20,586.32 $22,024.16 -6.53%
Jeep Grand
Cherokee 10 9 4.00% $14,505.73 $16,537.03 -12.28%
Jeep Wrangler 11 15 14.24% $16,171.96 $18,241.90 -11.35%
Nissan Altima 12 10 -3.77% $13,976.05 $14,878.56 -6.07%
Ford Explorer 13 12 -3.65% $14,011.62 $15,798.18 -11.31%
Audi A4 14 14 -1.61% $20,268.76 $21,896.21 -7.43%
Toyota Tacoma 15 13 -3.13% $17,188.78 $18,791.11 -8.53%
Chevrolet Silverado
2500 16 16 -0.05% $19,829.73 $23,267.11 -14.77%
Toyota Camry 17 18 0.73% $15,735.49 $16,703.54 -5.80%
Chevrolet Corvette 18 21 19.48% $35,344.85 $38,775.86 -8.85%
Dodge Ram 2500 19 20 7.37% $20,874.87 $24,235.10 -13.87%
Chevrolet Impala 20 19 0.27% $12,952.93 $14,562.21 -11.05%
Top 10 Most Viewed New Vehicle
Manufacturers
MAKE Rank Rank Change from
02/09 02/08 02/08
Chevrolet 1 1 -15.30%
Ford 2 2 -6.18%
Toyota 3 3 -15.00%
Dodge 4 6 42.18%
Honda 5 4 3.65%
Nissan 6 5 7.11%
Hyundai 7 13 95.55%
GMC 8 7 -13.49%
Jeep 9 9 -6.32%
Mercedes-Benz 10 10 -1.58%
SOURCE AutoTrader.com