NADAguides' Quarter Two Brand Share Report Shows European Brands Gaining Momentum

COSTA MESA, Calif., July 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

News Highlights

• NADAguides, the most comprehensive vehicle information provider on the Internet today, announces its Brand Share Report for the second quarter of 2011 – revealing that European brands as a whole saw the largest increase in consumer interest on NADAguides.com during the second quarter of 2011, increasing its overall share of consumer interest by more than nine percent.
• The analysts at NADAguides attribute a portion of the gain in European brand consumer interest to MINI as well as the launch of Fiat's new Fiat 500.  Data reveals that interest in Fiat increased by more than 168 percent during the second quarter of 2011 and MINI saw an increase in consumer interest of more than 206 percent; fueled by the launch of the Countryman.
• Ford, Chevrolet and Toyota maintained position as the top three most researched brands on NADAguides.com, with Nissan and Honda trading spots and rounding out the top five – Nissan had a 93 percent increase in consumer interest which knocked Honda out of the fourth spot and into the fifth in overall consumer interest on NADAguides.com.
• Decreasing 15.5 percent in overall consumer interest on NADAguides.com from quarter one to quarter two did not take the number one spot away from Ford, which accounted for 14.3 percent of consumer interest on NADAguides.com during the second quarter of 2011. Chevrolet and Toyota both stayed relatively consistent during the second quarter of 2011 as compared to the first quarter with Chevrolet owning 11.8 percent of consumer interest (11.9 percent during the first quarter) and Toyota owning 9.6 percent (10.3 percent during the first quarter).  
• Although domestics continue to lead both in sales and in consumer interest on NADAguides, interest for domestics actually decreased by 4.4 percent while sales increased 1.9 percent during the second quarter of 2011 – which the NADAguides analysts suggest may be an indication that sales for the domestic brands may see a decrease in the near future.  
• Consumer interest in Japanese brands increased by 1.8 percent on NADAguides.com while sales numbers for the brands dropped 3.5 percent during the second quarter.  NADAguides analysts attribute some of this disparity to the circumstances surrounding production disruption and related vehicle shortages following the Japanese earthquake and tsunami – signifying that interest is still there for the Japanese brands but with limited availability sales may have slowed.
• The NADAguides Brand Share Report also revealed that consumer interest during the second quarter of 2011 for European brands (16 percent) is larger than interest for the Korean brands (11.4 percent) while market share for the two brands are still relatively similar with Europeans owning 8.9 percent of the market and Korean brands just beating them out with nine percent.  With the increases in consumer interest for  European models, yet not a huge shift in sales, NADAguides analysts feel that this may be a foreshadow to future consumer purchasing intent – expecting to see a larger increase in European sales in the coming months.

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Key Quotes

• Troy Snyder, Director of Product Development, NADAguides: "The shift in interest for the European brands was not surprising to the analytical team.  Compact, fuel efficient and versatile vehicles are capturing more and more market interest as they address current in-market car shopper needs.  Brands prepared for this demand with diverse model lineups and the ability to deliver these vehicles are benefiting from the demand."

About the NADAguides Brand Share Report

The quarterly NADAguides Brand Share Report is a collection of data points from hundreds of thousands of research behaviors and actions of in-market, new-car shoppers on NADAguides.com.  NADAguides' Brand Share Report is an ongoing study, tracking and trending consumer research patterns, purchase intents and market and data interests within automotive brands.

About NADAguides

NADAguides (http://www.nadaguides.com) is the largest publisher of vehicle pricing and information for new and used cars, classic cars, motorcycles, boats, RVs, and manufactured homes. NADAguides offers in-depth shopping and research tools in addition to the most market-reflective pricing available. The company also produces software, raw data, web services, web-syndicated products and print guidebooks.

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