Car Sales Surging in Last Week of December, According to Edmunds.com

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--Edmunds.com, has noticed a tremendous boost in web activity in the past week.

“We could potentially reach a December SAAR of 11.7 million units given the current site traffic trend”

“We could potentially reach a December SAAR of 11.7 million units given the current site traffic trend,” noted Edmunds.com Senior Analyst Jessica Caldwell. “Our Web site activity is through the roof, which makes sense as there are so many bargain-hunters scrambling to get year-end deals and cash in on the sales tax deduction opportunity that expires on December 31^st.”

Past history suggests that the type of Edmunds.com visitor activity tracked for this study typically has a strong correlation to actual sales.

Site activity is up across the board; however, some brands are experiencing better than average interest in the past four days compared with the first three weeks of December. Here are some examples:

• BMW – Increase of nearly 70 percent; may be due to heavily publicized “BMW Joy Sales Event.”
• Chevrolet – Increase of nearly 85 percent; may be due to “Red Tag” event that includes “Holiday Cash.”
• Ford – Increase of nearly 100 percent; may be due to “Ford Year-End Sales Event.”
• Honda – Increase of nearly 100 percent; may be due to increased advertising of “Happy Honda Days.”
• Pontiac – Over ten times as much activity; may be due to media hype about close-out deals.
• Saturn – Nearly ten times as much activity; may be due to media hype about close-out deals.

About Edmunds.com Inc. (http://www.edmunds.com/help/about/)

Edmunds.com Inc. publishes four Web sites that empower, engage and educate automotive consumers, enthusiasts and insiders. Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive consumer information, launched in 1995 as the first automotive information Web site. InsideLine.com is the most-read automotive enthusiast Web site. CarSpace is an automotive social networking Web site. AutoObserver.com provides insightful automotive industry commentary and analysis. Edmunds.com Inc. is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, and maintains a satellite office in suburban Detroit. Follow Edmunds.com on Twitter @edmunds and fan Edmunds.com on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/edmunds.