
While Ford and Chevrolet were the top searches on AutoTrader.com for October, muscle car searches were strong, with some clocking big jumps in views month over month. In October, the new Chevrolet Camaro dropped from the No. 1 most-viewed spot, which it had held since April of this year, to No. 2. The new Ford Mustang came in at No. 3 in October, down from No. 2 in September.
The new Chevrolet Corvette grabbed the No. 5 most-viewed spot in October, up from No. 13 in September of this year. The new Dodge Challenger also saw a big gain, entering the new-vehicle top 20 list at No. 11, up from No. 25 in September.
"Manufacturers have really hit on something with these vehicles," said Perry. "Perhaps they are a throw back to simpler times and people are reacting to that or there's a segment of the population that's tired of denying themselves fun and exciting things due to the recession. Whatever the reason, people are looking at these cars on our site and sales have been correspondingly strong."
"Both Ford and Chevy are riding waves of great publicity fueled by high reliability rankings, innovative marketing campaigns, incentives like the GM 60-day guarantee program and strong products," said AutoTrader.com President and CEO Chip Perry. "Consumers are responding to these messages and giving these cars a good look on our site, which should result in continued positive results for these brands."
NEW CAR Rank Rank BRAND 10/09 10/08 ----- ------ ------ CHEVROLET 1 3 FORD 2 2 TOYOTA 3 1 NISSAN 4 6 HONDA 5 5 DODGE 6 4 GMC 7 8 MERCEDES-BENZ 8 12 BMW 9 9 AUDI 10 17