Study: Hondas Most Popular
PORTLAND, Ore.--Honda produces the most popular car models while Ford is rated as the most popular manufacturer, according to Chrome Data Corp.’s ’s Top 10, national and regional rankings of the most popular vehicles researched by the nation’s online auto shoppers.
The results are through October, and the regions include the metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York City, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle/Tacoma, Tampa and Washington, D.C.
For a complete list of regional rankings visit www.chrome.com.
The Chrome Top 10 rankings are compiled from online car shoppers’ requests for price quotes (RFQs) from dealers made through Chrome’s web-based pricing and configuration tool, Chrome Carbook, which is accessible from more than 1,000 Web sites.
“It’s just one example of the data mining that could be performed on this database of hundreds of thousands of RFQs aggregated by zip code,” said Bob Navarre, Chrome’s chief executive officer. “What we report here is a partial predictor of future purchase; in other words, it partially predicts what consumers are looking for, where.”
“If they’re looking at price data, they’re probably less than a month away from actually buying a car,” said Art Spinella, vice president of CNW Marketing/Research. “If they’re focusing more on the models available and the styling features within models, then they’re likely two to four months from making a purchase.”
Chrome’s experience shows that consumers specify more than 14 vehicles for every one for which they request a price quote from a dealer. “In other words, consumers reaching the point in the buying process where they request a price quote are serious shoppers.”
The information collected by Chrome can be useful for the entire automotive industry, according to the company. “It’s not just a matter of what’s selling where; it’s also a matter of what’s requested where. Since this information is partially predictive in nature, all parties in the retail supply chain have a window of opportunity to react to the information to meet consumer demand that won’t actually develop until later,” the company noted.
“All this is based on simple rankings of configurations of year/make/model/style aggregated by zip code. Consider what could be done when more style information and all the specific options and trim packages are thrown into the research mix. What option packages are most popular on the Ford Taurus? Not what consumers end up buying--but what they originally requested. How close a match are those two pieces of information?”
For example, the information can reveal, “What colors are consumers requesting in specific models, versus what they're buying (because, presumably, that was all they could find in a reasonable time frame upon ordering?)”
• National Chrome Top 10, October 2000 YTD
Rank Year Make Model
1 2000 Honda Accord
2 2000 Honda Civic
3 2000 Honda Odyssey
4 2000 Volkswagen Jetta
5 2000 BMW 323
6 2001 Chrysler PT Cruiser
7 2000 Nissan Xterra
8 2000 Volkswagen Passat
9 2000 Ford Focus
10 2000 Ford Mustang
• Most Popular Vehicle by Region, October 2000 YTD
Region Year Make Model
Atlanta, GA 2000 Honda Accord
Boston, MA 2000 Honda Civic
Chicago, IL 2000 Honda Accord
Cleveland, OH 2000 Volkswagen Jetta
Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX 2000 Honda Accord
Denver, CO 2000 Honda Accord
Detroit, MI 2000 Ford Focus
Houston, TX 2000 Honda Accord
Lansing, MI 2000 Ford Mustang
Las Vegas, NV 2000 Honda Civic
Los Angeles, CA 2000 Honda Accord
Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, FL 2000 Honda Civic
Minneapolis/ St. Paul, MN 2000 Honda Civic
New York, NY 2000 Honda Accord
Orlando/Daytona Beach, FL 2000 Honda Civic
Philadelphia, PA 2000 Honda Accord
Phoenix, AZ 2000 Honda Accord
Pittsburgh, PA 2000 Honda Accord
Portland, OR/ Vancouver, WA 2000 Volkswagen Jetta
Sacramento/ Stockton/ Modesto, CA 2000 Honda Civic
San Francisco/ San Jose, CA 2000 Honda Civic
Seattle/Tacoma, WA 2000 Honda Civic
Tampa/St. Petersburg/ Sarasota, FL 2000 Nissan Xterra
Washington, D.C. 2000 Honda Civic
• Most Popular Manufacturers, October 2000 YTD
Rank Manufacturer % 1 Ford 14.6%
2 Honda 11.5%
3 Chevrolet 9.0%
4 Toyota 8.7%
5 Nissan 6.5%
6 Volkswagen 6.0%
7 Dodge 4.9%
8 BMW 4.0%
9 Chrysler 3.3%
10 Pontiac 2.6%
For more information, conact www.chrome.com.