Large Trucks and SUVs Continue to Dominate for Most-Viewed Vehicles in All Categories on AutoTrader.com

ATLANTA, April 3 /PRNewswire/ -- AutoTrader.com's March Trend Engine report showed that in spite of government and environmental advocacy groups touting the benefits of smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles, Americans seem to still have an insatiable feeling that bigger is better. Of the top 20 new vehicles viewed on AutoTrader.com in March, the majority were either large sedans or trucks, with exactly half offering consumers V8 power as either standard or optional.

Trucks and SUVs dominated the top 20 used vehicle list on AutoTrader.com as well, clinching 11 of the top 20 spots, with muscle and sports cars holding another three spots on the list. Vehicles with a four-cylinder option accounted for only seven of the top 20 spots of vehicles viewed on AutoTrader.com last month.

Reflecting many Americans' turn from new vehicles to used when they are buying, almost all new cars on the top 20 list saw drops in views in March 2009 compared to March 2008. Among new midsize sedans, drops ranged from 41.37% for the Chevrolet Malibu to 60.13% for the Honda Accord. Similarly, among full-size 1500-series pick-ups, declines ranged from 23.21% for the Dodge Ram 1500 to 60.55% for the Toyota Tundra. The new-for-2009 Ram's drop was actually a bit of a bright spot, as the new car sales market in March was down 37% in terms of sales year-over-year. Other relative bright spots among mainstream vehicles were the heavy-duty Ford F-250 pick-up, which saw a decrease in views of just 4.45%, and the Volkswagen Jetta sedan and wagon, which actually saw an increase in views of .79%. That increase, while minor, was enough to drive the Jetta from 54th to 20th year-over-year, relative to a soft marketplace.

Among the Top 10 most-viewed brands in general, most saw drops in line with their performance in March new car sales figures. The lone uptick came from Hyundai, which saw an increase in views of 7.93%, the continued result of its Assurance marketing campaign and favorably-received new vehicle launches.

"American confidence is still low in the economy, and the fear of losing a job is still driving in-market car shoppers to turn from new to used," said AutoTrader.com President and CEO Chip Perry. "It will be interesting to see if Ford's Advantage Plan and General Motors' Total Confidence programs will lure shoppers back into those makers' new-car showrooms in the same way that the Assurance program has worked for Hyundai."

Sole Top-20 Used Compact Vehicle Sees Significant Drop in Views

The used vehicle market continued to show growth in light of consumers' skittishness towards new vehicles, with many of the larger vehicles seeing the greatest increases in views year-over-year when compared to March 2008. While the average asking prices for used vehicles declined slightly from March 2008, views for 1500 and 2500-series pick-ups showed double-digit increases, ranging from 12.77% increase for the top-viewed Ford F-150 to 24.40% for another Ford, the F-250. Similar gains were registered by trucks from Dodge and Chevrolet.

AutoTrader.com also looked specifically at sales of Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) vehicles this month, as the segment continues to grow in importance. The BMW 3-series and the Honda Accord continued their 1-2 dominance in the sector among most-viewed vehicles from March 2008.

The sole compact or sub-compact car on either Top 20 list -- the Honda Civic -- proved to be the largest loser in terms of views, dropping 22.56% among used vehicles, and 41.21% among CPO.

"The government says that part of the reason for General Motors and Chrysler's current woes is their failures at building the smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, but at the same time, we are seeing consumers shopping and buying full-size pick-ups and SUVs - not compacts," said Perry. "Americans have traditionally gone for larger and more powerful vehicles and without gas prices spiking to $4 a gallon or above like they did last summer, there's little indication that this trend will change anytime soon."

About AutoTrader.com

AutoTrader.com, created in 1997 and headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., is the Internet's leading auto classifieds marketplace and consumer information website. AutoTrader.com aggregates in a single location about 3.5 million new cars, used cars and certified pre-owned cars from 40,000 dealers and 250,000 private owners and the site attracts about 14 million unique monthly visitors. Through innovative merchandising functionality such as multiple photos, videos, detailed descriptions and comprehensive research and compare tools, AutoTrader.com unites new and used car buyers and sellers online to improving the way people research, locate and advertise vehicles. AutoTrader.com is a majority-owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises. The venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is also an investor. For more information, please visit www.autotrader.com.

    MAKE     MODEL   Rank Rank  Change from  Avg Price  Avg Price Change from
                    03/09 03/08   03/08      - 03/09    - 03/08      03/08

                                    New Cars

    Ford       F-150      1   3    -37.16%    $33,655.50  $31,721.56    6.10%
    Ford       Mustang    2   7    -27.04%    $32,674.47  $30,681.07    6.50%
    Dodge      Challenger 3 326  10405.41%    $37,228.83  $47,747.00  -22.03%
    Toyota     Camry      4   4    -56.02%    $24,220.10  $24,663.20   -1.80%
    Honda      Accord     5   1    -60.13%    $25,819.49  $25,249.92    2.26%
    Chevrolet  Silverado
               1500       6   2    -62.26%    $31,844.44  $30,095.55    5.81%
    Dodge      Ram 1500   7  11    -23.21%    $34,159.60  $31,510.14    8.41%
    Honda      Civic      8   5    -53.85%    $20,849.66  $19,860.56    4.98%
    Chevrolet  Corvette   9  23     -4.83%    $60,846.10  $60,874.44   -0.05%
    Jeep       Wrangler  10  12    -26.95%    $27,432.74  $27,406.82    0.09%
    Nissan     Altima    11   6    -57.08%    $24,471.84  $24,455.40    0.07%
    Ford       F-250     12  33     -4.45%    $42,215.11  $42,969.01   -1.75%
    Toyota     Tacoma    13   9    -50.48%    $25,412.67  $24,951.78    1.85%
    Pontiac    G8        14  65     42.36%    $32,308.10  $31,338.94    3.09%
    Toyota     Corolla   15  10    -48.97%    $18,715.78  $18,263.37    2.48%
    Chevrolet  Malibu    16  17    -41.37%    $24,452.85  $23,100.48    5.85%
    Honda      CR-V      17  16    -46.50%    $25,417.51  $24,941.85     .91%
    Chevrolet  Tahoe     18  18    -43.46%    $47,763.07  $45,284.91    5.47%
    Toyota     Tundra    19   8    -60.55%    $33,842.53  $33,977.84   -0.40%
    Volkswagen Jetta     20  54      0.79%    $22,573.31  $21,421.61    5.38%

                                    Used Cars

    Ford       F-150      1   1     12.77%    $17,242.98  $18,212.09   -5.32%
    Ford       Mustang    2   2     -1.99%    $16,436.56  $17,712.11   -7.20%
    Chevrolet  Silverado
               1500       3   4     10.48%    $16,874.31  $18,401.36    -.30%
    Honda      Accord     4   5    -14.80%    $15,232.74  $16,529.25   -7.84%
    Honda      Civic      5   3    -22.56%    $13,412.82  $14,446.95   -7.16%
    Infiniti   G35/G37    6   6      6.73%    $20,899.61  $22,753.22   -8.15%
    Dodge      Ram 1500   7   7     17.89%    $15,601.97  $16,666.75   -6.39%
    Ford       F-250      8  12     24.40%    $20,978.57  $24,322.80  -13.75%
    Chevrolet  Tahoe      9  17     23.65%    $22,150.82  $22,034.36    0.53%
    Jeep       Wrangler  10  16     17.61%    $16,456.25  $18,229.59   -9.73%
    Jeep       Grand
               Cherokee  11  14      3.13%    $14,844.55  $16,588.09  -10.51%
    Nissan     Altima    12   8    -14.49%    $14,170.10  $15,041.84   -5.80%
    Audi       A4        13  10     -3.45%    $20,410.76  $21,651.31   -5.73%
    Toyota     Tacoma    14   9    -11.30%    $17,476.29  $18,827.89   -7.18%
    Chevrolet  Silverado
               2500      15  20     20.34%    $20,488.63  $23,190.12  -11.65%
    Ford       Explorer  16  15     -5.86%    $14,632.45  $15,792.49   -7.35%
    Dodge      Ram 2500  17  24     23.59%    $21,546.61  $24,133.81  -10.72%
    Chevrolet  Corvette  18  21     13.73%    $35,314.28  $38,959.57   -9.36%
    Toyota     Camry     19  13    -15.20%    $15,786.75  $16,720.98   -5.59%
    Volkswagen Jetta     20  11    -19.76%    $12,536.44  $14,093.52  -11.05%



    MAKE     MODEL   Rank Rank  Change from  Avg Price  Avg Price Change from
                    03/09 03/08   03/08      - 03/09    - 03/08      03/08

                                    Certified Pre-Owned
    BMW        3-Series     1   1     8.28%   $31,266.73  $32,096.13   -2.58%
    Honda      Accord       2   2   -16.84%   $17,727.45  $18,631.64   -4.85%
    Chevrolet  Silverado    3   4    16.36%   $20,859.74  $21,546.97   -3.19%
    Chevrolet  Tahoe        4  10    45.15%   $28,785.08  $28,298.24    1.72%
    Toyota     Tundra       5  11    43.73%   $22,288.90  $24,287.87   -8.23%
    Ford       F-150        6   7    14.85%   $21,711.86  $22,365.87   -2.92%
    Toyota     Camry        7   5   -15.38%   $18,392.88  $18,692.53   -1.60%
    Honda      Civic        8   3   -41.21%   $16,289.78  $16,752.96   -2.76%
    Audi       A4           9   6     0.78%   $24,687.63  $25,872.12   -4.58%
    Mercedes   E-Class     10  23    62.76%   $34,597.26  $39,119.17  -11.56%
    Toyota     Highlander  11  15    24.53%   $22,753.67  $22,984.62   -1.00%
    Toyota     Tacoma      12   8    -8.18%   $20,438.17  $21,448.90   -4.71%
    Chevrolet  Impala      13   9    -8.35%   $15,667.58  $16,739.63   -6.40%
    Chevrolet  TrailBlazer 14  19    16.68%   $17,838.04  $19,268.07   -7.42%
    Acura      TL          15  13     4.09%   $24,111.81  $26,370.77   -8.57%
    Toyota     4Runner     16  22    21.35%   $23,189.66  $24,327.29   -4.68%
    Ford       Mustang     17  16     6.55%   $18,717.80  $20,882.59  -10.37%
    BMW        X5          18  12    -9.02%   $35,359.43  $37,178.29   -4.89%
    Chevrolet  Malibu      19  28    33.59%   $14,709.92  $14,152.09    3.94%
    Acura      MDX         20  31    38.24%   $26,489.68  $29,048.69   -8.81%



                    Top 10 Most Viewed New Vehicle Manufacturers
                        MAKE       Rank    Rank  Change from
                                  03/09   03/08        03/08
                    Ford              1       3       -34.68%
                    Chevrolet         2       2       -45.18%
                    Toyota            3       1       -49.74%
                    Dodge             4       6       -21.76%
                    Nissan            5       5       -36.01%
                    Honda             6       4       -50.99%
                    BMW               7      11       -18.52%
                    Hyundai           8      14         7.93%
                    GMC               9       7       -46.31%
                    Jeep             10       9       -46.16%

SOURCE: AutoTrader.com

Web site: http://www.autotrader.com/