japanese Car makers Rank Highest With Canadian Internet Users

TORONTO, Sept. 19, 2005; Results of a new report show that Canadian Internet savvy Car buyers have chosen Honda, Toyota and Mazda as their top selling vehicles in 2005.

Results clearly show Japanese carmakers continue to gain market share at domestic's expense. Honda, including its luxury Acura division, ranked 1st at a shocking 22.3% of all buyers. Toyota, including its luxury Lexus division, ranked 2nd at 16.0%. Mazda ranked a very strong 3rd at 13.1%, Nissan, including its luxury Infiniti division ranked 4th at 11.7%. General Motors, the worlds No. 1 carmaker, was the strongest domestic carmaker ranking 5th at only 8.4%. "This is a very disappointing result for GM. GM's overall market share is 28.7%, bolstered by large fleet sales. However, among the fast growing group of Internet savvy car buyers, GM is clearly not getting their message across effectively," said Armada's President Paul Timoteo.

Other notables included Hyundai, including its KIA division, ranked 6th at 6.5%. Ford ranked 7th at 6.1% and Chrysler, including Mercedes-Benz and Smart, ranked 8th at 5.4%.

Mazda is the big winner in this report. Mazda overall only has 5.1% market share, yet was able to capture 13.1% of the buyers in this report. The strength of the hot-selling Mazda3 has really put Mazda back on the map with Canadian car buyers. This should be a big wakeup call to Mazda's parent, The Ford Motor Company.

The report was based on survey results from 1,400 members of CarCostCanada.com, Canada's No. 1 independent new car pricing service. Information was gathered within 30 days of purchase, between January 1st and August 31st, 2005. CarCostCanada.com is a division of Armada Data Corp, TSX-ARD.

Recent surveys have shown that over 65% of Canadian new car buyers do some research online before making their buying decision. This number has almost doubled over the past three years. The more research they do, the more informed they get and the more likely they are to buy Japanese. Some of the things they look for are reliability, price, and fuel economy.

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or for an interview, please contact: Nelson Hudes, Hudes Communications International, (905) 660-9155, nelson@hudescommunications.com