Auto Trader Thinks 2009 Ends on a Strong Note as Shoppers Return to New Vehicles
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Used and Certified Pre-Owned Sales Show America's Continued Desire for Full-Size Trucks and SUVs
ATLANTA - January 6, 2010: New car shopping activity on AutoTrader.com saw a significant burst in December compared to December of 2008 and recent previous months, as consumers began looking at more new cars. Most new vehicles on AutoTrader.com's Top 20 list of new cars searched saw double-digit increases in views compared to December 2008, which for many automakers was one of the worst selling months.
Leading the way was the Chevrolet Traverse crossover, which saw a 181% increase in views compared to December 2008. The Toyota Corolla was the top-gaining car on the Top 20 list for the month, with an increase of views of 154% compared to December 2008.
New vehicle prices may also be on the rebound, with average list prices for 14 of the top 20 new cars viewed on the site marking increases compared to December of 2008. The Ford F-150, the Ford Fusion and the Chevy Silverado all saw double digit average price increases over December 2008. Increases in other average list prices were more modest, but are still encouraging.
"December 2009 may be remembered as the month where interest in new cars returned if activity on our site is any indication," said AutoTrader.com President and CEO Chip Perry. "Many consumers are feeling more confident about their jobs and the economy going into the New Year, and those factors, coupled with lots of exciting new models in showrooms, should drive an increasing amount of foot traffic to new car dealers throughout 2010. The typical AutoTrader.com visitor is looking to purchase a vehicle in 30 to 90 days, so new car dealers and auto manufacturers may have something to celebrate in the next quarter or so."
The F-150 and the Honda Accord held the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on the most viewed new car list for December 2009, positions those perennial favorites held in November of 2009 and in December of 2008.
Used Car Demand Falls as Inventories Shrink, Consumers Opt for New
Views for used and Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) vehicles on AutoTrader.com continued to benefit trucks and SUVs, as these larger vehicles remained popular with car shoppers in December 2009. While overall shopping activity for many used and CPO vehicles was down, this was driven by the reduced inventories, rather than a loss of interest, a fact that was reflected in the increased average asking prices of these trucks and SUVs. For example, while the full-size Chevrolet Suburban SUV saw views decrease 24% in December 2009 compared to December 2008, average asking prices for available vehicles increased almost 19%, from $27,951 in December 2008 to $33,185 this past month.
"Poor sales in 2008 due to high gas prices and the economy - which caused a corresponding pull back of manufacturing new cars - has reduced the number of used and CPO vehicles now available on the market, which in turn has reduced dealer inventories and the amount of shopping activity that we are currently seeing on such vehicles," said Perry. "As new car sales improve and these buyers trade in their now used cars, we should see also see a corresponding improvement in used-car inventories and shopping activity.
CPO inventories took a double hit as the credit crisis caused many manufacturers to pull back or eliminate leasing programs, an important avenue for late model CPO inventory. "Those CPO buyers who weren't scared away from buying by the challenging economy found that in many cases there just wasn't available inventory of CPO vehicles because these leasing programs had dried up," said Perry. "But as credit eases for both consumers and auto manufacturers, we'll see a return to normalcy in the CPO market. Certified vehicles remain an important component of manufacturers' and dealers' sales strategies going forward into the future."
The Ford F-150 captured the No. 1 spot on the top viewed used vehicles list in December 2009, followed by the BMW 3 Series at No. 2, the Chevy Silverado at No. 3 and the Ford Mustang at No. 4. All four models held these same positions in November of 2009 and in December of 2008.
In CPO searches, the BMW 3 Series captured the top spot again, with, in order, the Chevy Silverado, the Honda Accord, the Chevy Tahoe and the Ford F-150 rounding out the top five most viewed CPO vehicles on AutoTrader.com.
Rank Rank Rank Change from
MAKE MODEL 12/09 11/09 12/08 12/08
---- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----------
New Cars
Ford F-150 1 1 1 60.53%
Honda Accord 2 2 2 52.15%
Toyota Camry 3 3 4 82.70%
Chevrolet Silverado 1500 4 4 3 58.86%
Toyota Corolla 5 6 11 154.13%
Honda Civic 6 5 5 63.15%
Dodge Ram 1500 7 11 6 48.73%
BMW 3-Series 8 16 16 100.49%
Nissan Altima 9 9 7 37.31%
Chevrolet Malibu 10 10 14 70.95%
Ford F-250 11 15 27 105.88%
Toyota Tacoma 12 14 17 61.21%
Ford Focus 13 13 23 90.62%
Chevrolet Camaro 14 7 N/A
Jeep Wrangler 15 18 9 36.19%
Ford Fusion 16 12 29 99.58%
Ford Mustang 17 8 10 35.18%
Volkswagen Jetta 18 20 28 68.31%
Mazda Mazda3 19 23 36 104.65%
Chevrolet Traverse 20 17 70 181.43%
Used Cars
Ford F-150 1 1 1 -7.18%
BMW 3-Series 2 2 2 -8.20%
Chevrolet Silverado 1500 3 3 3 2.43%
Ford Mustang 4 4 4 -13.47%
Ford F-250 5 5 11 25.31%
Dodge Ram 1500 6 7 5 -12.38%
Honda Accord 7 6 6 -10.61%
Chevrolet Tahoe 8 8 8 -2.47%
Chevrolet Silverado 2500 9 10 17 28.15%
Jeep Wrangler 10 13 13 1.55%
Honda Civic 11 9 9 -14.02%
Dodge Ram 2500 12 12 19 22.20%
Infiniti G35/G37 13 11 7 -25.70%
Toyota Tacoma 14 16 15 -0.63%
BMW 5-Series 15 14 12 -10.22%
Jeep Grand Cherokee 16 17 10 -25.27%
Nissan Altima 17 15 16 -7.32%
Ford Explorer 18 18 14 -21.34%
Toyota Tundra 19 21 23 -2.01%
Ford F-350 20 23 32 19.66%
Avg Price - Avg Price - Change from
MAKE MODEL 12/09 12/08 12/08
---- ----- --------- --------- ----------
New Cars
Ford F-150 $35,735.62 $31,673.68 12.82%
Honda Accord $25,874.89 $26,059.86 -0.71%
Toyota Camry $24,379.30 $24,196.44 0.76%
Chevrolet Silverado 1500 $34,193.69 $30,836.02 10.89%
Toyota Corolla $18,164.78 $18,776.40 -3.26%
Honda Civic $19,993.30 $20,636.39 -3.12%
Dodge Ram 1500 $33,724.79 $33,897.99 -0.51%
BMW 3-Series $50,616.18 $56,447.07 -10.33%
Nissan Altima $24,834.22 $24,690.39 0.58%
Chevrolet Malibu $24,578.95 $24,353.95 0.92%
Ford F-250 $45,191.15 $42,333.77 6.75%
Toyota Tacoma $26,403.20 $25,341.87 4.19%
Ford Focus $18,532.69 $18,049.70 2.68%
Chevrolet Camaro $33,841.54 N/A
Jeep Wrangler $28,752.00 $27,621.26 4.09%
Ford Fusion $25,598.51 $22,712.55 12.71%
Ford Mustang $32,321.09 $31,838.09 1.52%
Volkswagen Jetta $22,983.19 $22,399.86 2.60%
Mazda Mazda3 $20,363.96 $18,948.25 7.47%
Chevrolet Traverse $35,610.31 $35,463.58 0.41%
Used Cars
Ford F-150 $19,308.71 $15,686.84 23.09%
BMW 3-Series $25,909.36 $26,440.75 -2.01%
Chevrolet Silverado 1500 $18,882.59 $15,554.25 21.40%
Ford Mustang $16,857.77 $16,087.19 4.79%
Ford F-250 $23,289.14 $19,735.17 18.01%
Dodge Ram 1500 $17,619.89 $14,211.91 23.98%
Honda Accord $15,663.95 $15,429.18 1.52%
Chevrolet Tahoe $24,135.36 $19,430.89 24.21%
Chevrolet Silverado 2500 $22,732.73 $19,144.04 18.75%
Jeep Wrangler $19,316.77 $16,220.68 19.09%
Honda Civic $13,515.42 $14,114.65 -4.25%
Dodge Ram 2500 $24,169.95 $20,270.38 19.24%
Infiniti G35/G37 $22,366.69 $20,618.89 8.48%
Toyota Tacoma $19,207.12 $17,406.99 10.34%
BMW 5-Series $30,656.17 $30,298.16 1.18%
Jeep Grand Cherokee $16,108.55 $13,946.60 15.50%
Nissan Altima $14,159.99 $14,098.32 0.44%
Ford Explorer $15,529.27 $13,637.04 13.88%
Toyota Tundra $22,240.37 $18,246.13 21.89%
Ford F-350 $24,895.98 $21,337.08 16.68%
Rank Rank Rank Change from
MAKE MODEL 12/09 11/09 12/08 12/08
---- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----------
Certified Pre-Owned
BMW 3-Series 1 1 1 -12.68%
Chevrolet Silverado 1500 2 3 2 -11.06%
Honda Accord 3 2 3 -10.05%
Chevrolet Tahoe 4 4 5 -2.91%
Ford F-150 5 7 4 -19.44%
BMW 5-Series 6 8 6 -14.02%
Toyota Tundra 7 5 8 -2.95%
Toyota Camry 8 6 11 -4.83%
Toyota Tacoma 9 10 9 -12.26%
Honda Civic 10 9 7 -25.79%
Audi A4 11 11 10 -20.80%
Acura TL 12 12 19 -6.72%
Mercedes-
Benz E-Class 13 13 12 -26.81%
Toyota Highlander 14 14 20 -11.56%
GMC Sierra 15 17 25 -0.18%
Toyota 4Runner 16 21 26 -2.42%
Chevrolet Suburban 17 22 17 -24.57%
Ford Mustang 18 15 18 -23.42%
Mercedes-
Benz C-Class 19 19 16 -26.07%
GMC Yukon 20 23 23 -9.67%
Avg Price - Avg Price - Change from
MAKE MODEL 12/09 12/08 12/08
---- ----- --------- --------- ----------
Certified Pre-Owned
BMW 3-Series $32,117.83 $32,006.75 0.35%
Chevrolet Silverado 1500 $23,188.30 $18,791.18 23.40%
Honda Accord $18,398.57 $17,887.83 2.86%
Chevrolet Tahoe $31,270.04 $26,024.32 20.16%
Ford F-150 $23,680.43 $19,609.23 20.76%
BMW 5-Series $37,456.97 $36,222.01 3.41%
Toyota Tundra $24,927.51 $20,944.27 19.02%
Toyota Camry $18,385.22 $18,506.26 -0.65%
Toyota Tacoma $22,217.07 $20,214.45 9.91%
Honda Civic $16,424.46 $16,789.00 -2.17%
Audi A4 $26,463.83 $25,187.14 5.07%
Acura TL $27,036.47 $24,623.73 9.80%
Mercedes-
Benz E-Class $38,486.26 $34,059.18 13.00%
Toyota Highlander $24,066.88 $21,733.18 10.74%
GMC Sierra $24,250.43 $19,422.23 24.86%
Toyota 4Runner $24,446.34 $21,220.51 15.20%
Chevrolet Suburban $33,185.64 $27,951.46 18.73%
Ford Mustang $20,005.82 $18,119.20 10.41%
Mercedes-
Benz C-Class $28,880.08 $25,866.05 11.65%
GMC Yukon $33,343.31 $27,178.03 22.68%
TOP-VIEWED Rank Rank
BRANDS 12/09 12/08
---------- ----- -----
Ford 1 2
Chevrolet 2 1
Toyota 3 3
Honda 4 4
Nissan 5 6
Dodge 6 5
BMW 7 9
GMC 8 7
Hyundai 9 11
Mercedes-Benz 10 10
