NADAguides.com Brand Share Report for Q4 Shows Interest Gain for Domestics, Japanese and Europeans

COSTA MESA, Calif., Jan. 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

News Highlights

• NADAguides.com, the most comprehensive new and used vehicle information provider on the Internet today, announces its Brand Share Report for the fourth quarter of 2011 – revealing that domestic brands, along with Japanese and Europeans saw increases in consumer interest on NADAguides.com during the fourth quarter of 2011; Korean brands saw a slight decrease in share of consumer interest during the latter part of the year. 

• Domestic brands, led by Chevrolet saw the biggest increase of overall brand share by gaining a 1 percent increase in consumer interest. NADAguides.com analysts continue to see strong consumer interest in the Chevrolet Cruze, as well as the new Chevrolet Sonic sub-compact. 

• The top five most researched brands on NADAguides.com for the fourth quarter mirror the third quarter results with Chevrolet claiming the top spot, followed by Ford, Toyota, Nissan and Honda.   Interesting to note, while the rankings are the same, Toyota increased its share by almost a half of a percentage point as Camry gained consumer interest while Nissan and Honda fell slightly during the same period as less traffic was recorded for Altima and Civic.  

• Echoing the brand share results for Q4, a consumer poll on NADAguides.com finds the majority of car shoppers, 49 percent, indicate that their next car will be a domestic model followed by European makes at 22 percent, Japanese makes at 18 percent and Korean models at 11 percent.

• Korean brands, Hyundai and Kia, actually fell slightly during the fourth quarter while the European makes increased by a percentage point.  Chevrolet owned 14.8 percent of overall consumer interest on NADAguides.com during the fourth quarter of 2011, Ford 13.3 percent, Toyota 10.4 percent, Nissan 6.1 percent and Honda 5.7 percent. 

• While Hyundai and Kia have consistently ranked sixth and seventh in terms of brand market share on NADAguides.com throughout the year, GMC moved into the seventh spot in quarter four, pushing Kia down a spot. 

• During the fourth quarter of 2011 Lexus saw a 44 percent brand share increase from Q3 to Q4 moving from 20^th to 16^th in ranking.  However, Lexus sales for the year fell 13 percent which has been attributed to the production issues caused by the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan.  The most researched luxury brands on NADAguides.com are also reflected in the year- end sales shoot -out between BMW followed closely behind by Mercedes-Benz.  The top five luxury makes in overall interest for the fourth quarter were BMW 2.5 percent, Mercedes 2.1 percent, Cadillac 1.8 percent, Lexus 1.7 percent, and Audi 1.4 percent.

• Overall site traffic increased 17 percent from Q3 to Q4, mirroring a surge in sales during the latter part of the year.  During the fourth quarter of 2011 domestics further cemented their position as the leader both in sales and in consumer interest on NADAguides.com.  Interest for domestics was the highest of the year at 45.9 percent versus 44.9 percent in quarter three. 

• Both consumer interest and sales for Japanese brands actually increased in the fourth quarter with sales showing a slight uptick by 0.5 percent and an increase of a quarter of a percent in consumer brand interest.   Analysts see the stabilization of production levels during the fourth quarter as a positive sign for the Japanese makes moving into 2012. 

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Key Quotes

• Troy Snyder, Director of Product Development, NADAguides.com: "This has been a strong year for the domestic brands as they have continually dominated consumer interest on the site.  Surely the production issues that hampered the Japanese manufacturers aided this increase in share for the Big Three, however it will be interesting to see if they can continue the momentum now that production issues are resolved. The Koreans, while losing some consumer interest during the fourth quarter showed strong sales gains and have made it clear they are vying for a bigger piece of the market in 2012."
• Alan Batey, U.S. Vice President, Chevrolet Sales and Service: "Leading the industry with NADAguide.com's highest consumer brand share in our centennial year proves that we have transformed Chevrolet and are delivering the high-quality, fuel-efficient, expressively designed vehicles that more and more people want."

About the NADAguides.com Brand Share Report

The quarterly NADAguides.com 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.com 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.com

NADAguides.com (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.com 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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SOURCE NADAguides.com