ATLANTA, Nov. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- After a year of crushing gas prices and a
struggling economy, which saw consumers flocking to smaller cars, interest in
larger new vehicles may be returning. As gas prices fall and dealers and
manufactures offer special pricing and financing on larger models, page views
for several larger new models on AutoTrader.com are up, according to
AutoTrader.com's monthly Trend Engine report, which tracks the rise and fall
in page views of specific models on the site. On the used car list, the top
six models in October 2008 were exactly the same as the top six models in
October 2007, but prices on the larger, lower-MPG models continue to fall,
according to the report.
Larger new models making big jumps in page views on AutoTrader.com in
October included the Honda Odyssey (from No. 35 in October '07 to No. 9 in
October '08), the Honda Pilot (from No. 53 to No. 12 year over year), the
Chrysler Town & Country (from No. 32 to No. 17 year over year) and the Toyota
Highlander (from No. 51 to No. 20 year over year).
"In spite of the economy and gas prices, there will always be a market for
larger vehicles," said AutoTrader.com President and CEO Chip Perry. "While
many buyers can downsize to a smaller vehicle, many others can't because they
have large families, need a larger vehicle for work or for other reasons.
These people may be able to delay the purchase of a new vehicle, but they
can't delay it forever. The jumps in page views on our site for some of these
larger new vehicles may represent some pent up demand that is about to be
realized in sales in the coming weeks or months. The fact that dealers and
manufacturers are offering special pricing and financing on some of these
larger vehicles can only help move that inventory."
Two new models realized double digit increases in their average list
prices year over year, according to the AutoTrader.com Trend Engine. The
average price for a new Toyota Corolla jumped 10.35% from October '07 to
October '08 and the average price for a new Chevrolet Malibu jumped 20% from
October '07 to October '08. Demand for the Corolla remains high as many
consumers continue to purchase more fuel efficient cars and demand for the
Malibu continues to be driven by strong marketing and good buzz about the car
from automobile writers and the public.
Larger Used Vehicles Continue Price Drops
The top six used vehicles on AutoTrader.com's Trend Engine list for
October '08 held the exact same position in October '07. In order from No. 1
to No. 6 on the used vehicle list for this October and October '07 were the
Ford F-150, the Ford Mustang, the Chevrolet Silverado, the Honda Accord, the
Honda Civic and the Dodge Ram 1500. Average prices for the larger vehicles in
the top six on this list fell between 8.19% and 17.72% while average prices
for the used Honda Accord and the used Honda Civic increased 1.17% and 6.97%
respectively.
Almost across the board on the Trend Engine used vehicle top 20 list,
average prices for larger vehicles fell by double digits year over year while
average prices for smaller vehicles fell by single digits or rose slightly.
"Falling prices for these larger used vehicles mean we're continuing to
see some excess inventory of these larger cars, SUVs and trucks," said Perry.
"But as manufacturers continue to cut production of larger vehicles and demand
for larger vehicles normalizes as gas prices go down we may in the coming
months actually see a shortage of some historically popular new SUVs and
trucks, which may make this used inventory more attractive to the buyers who
need these vehicles to accommodate their work or lifestyles."
AutoTrader.com is the ultimate automotive marketplace with over 3.5
million vehicle listings. Using research gathered by studying the shopping
habits of over 14 million unique monthly visitors to the site, many of whom
are in-market shoppers looking to complete a vehicle purchase within the next
90 days, AutoTrader.com regularly compiles this data to offer insight into
current and emerging sales trends in the automobile industry.
About AutoTrader.com
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 more than 3.5 million
new, used and certified pre-owned vehicle listings from 40,000 dealers and
250,000 private owners and the site attracts more than 14 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 .
Change Change
Rank Rank from Avg Price Avg Price from
MAKE MODEL 10/08 10/07 10/07 - 10/08 - 10/07 10/07
Honda Accord 1 3 34.47% $26,330.12 $25,663.64 2.60%
Toyota Camry 2 8 84.38% $24,060.44 $24,789.51 -2.94%
Ford F-150 3 2 17.35% $30,150.27 $32,253.42 -6.52%
Dodge Ram 1500 4 12 109.61% $32,689.02 $32,398.90 0.90%
Chevrolet Silverado
1500 5 1 -10.19% $29,341.87 $29,950.88 -2.03%
Nissan Altima 6 5 41.63% $24,781.63 $24,595.48 0.76%
Honda Civic 7 7 29.95% $20,635.74 $19,882.28 3.79%
Dodge Challenger 8 N/A N/A $35,308.10 N/A N/A
Honda Odyssey 9 35 146.62% $33,356.46 $32,363.61 3.07%
Toyota Corolla 10 19 81.87% $18,961.67 $17,183.74 10.35%
Jeep Wrangler 11 9 24.98% $27,813.83 $26,770.29 3.90%
Honda Pilot 12 53 172.38% $35,285.34 $32,783.00 7.63%
Toyota Tacoma 13 15 58.00% $25,874.54 $25,221.38 2.59%
HONDA CRV 14 21 60.58% $25,272.99 $24,180.81 4.52%
Ford Mustang 15 4 -8.13% $31,473.67 $29,677.56 6.05%
Ford Edge 16 23 64.70% $31,840.78 $30,678.79 3.79%
Chrysler Town and
Country 17 32 80.46% $32,359.40 $30,257.81 6.95%
Chevrolet Malibu 18 141 445.94% $24,339.15 $20,283.29 20.00%
GMC Sierra 1500 19 13 15.47% $31,462.75 $32,236.78 -2.40%
Toyota Highlander 20 51 121.94% $35,734.13 $32,745.62 9.13%
Used Cars
Ford F-150 1 1 -34.56% $16,024.51 $19,376.66 -17.30%
Ford Mustang 2 2 -31.26% $16,748.65 $18,243.57 -8.19%
Chevrolet Silverado
1500 3 3 -33.70% $16,111.61 $19,480.05 -17.29%
Honda Accord 4 4 -37.36% $16,452.70 $16,262.11 1.17%
Honda Civic 5 5 -36.12% $15,026.97 $14,047.42 6.97%
Dodge Ram 1500 6 6 -27.63% $14,413.97 $17,519.00 -17.72%
Infiniti G35 7 10 -24.46% $21,324.76 $24,355.14 -12.44%
Ford F-250 8 7 -36.17% $20,080.38 $24,817.48 -19.09%
Jeep Grand
Cherokee 9 8 -35.92% $14,276.17 $16,696.39 -14.50%
Nissan Altima 10 11 -32.50% $15,087.04 $15,346.46 -1.69%
Chevrolet Tahoe 11 12 -32.22% $19,238.63 $23,108.30 -16.75%
Jeep Wrangler 12 18 -21.15% $16,862.51 $18,661.25 -9.64%
Ford Explorer 13 9 -43.00% $13,632.28 $16,235.69 -16.04%
Toyota Tacome 14 13 -39.44% $18,284.63 $19,235.07 -4.94%
Audi A4 15 17 -32.98% $21,784.71 $22,533.08 -3.32%
Toyota Camry 16 16 -33.89% $17,045.12 $17,010.39 0.20%
Volkswagen Jetta 17 15 -34.44% $14,047.21 $14,363.51 -2.20%
Dodge Ram 2500 18 19 -29.44% $20,482.94 $24,474.15 -16.31%
Chevrolet Silverado
2500 19 14 -38.13% $19,341.52 $22,984.90 -15.85%
Chevrolet Corvette 20 21 -28.47% $36,815.38 $39,625.94 -7.09%
