Earlier this month, Kelley Blue Book announced recent kbb.com Web traffic patterns, including the top five upward-climbing and downward-declining brands in share of market interest for May 2010 when compared to May 2009. Hyundai and Ford showed a significant increase in share of market interest. During the same time dominant brands Toyota and Honda showed a significant decrease in share of market interest.
Top Five Climbers:
1.Hyundai
2.Ford
3.GMC
4.Kia
5.Subaru
Top Five Decliners:
1.Toyota
2.Honda
3.Pontiac
4.Dodge
5.Lexus
Hyundai’s share of new-car shopper activity has increased 70 percent from May 2009 to May 2010, and the brand now holds 6 percent of the total new-car shopping activity on kbb.com. KBB claimed Hyundai’s success is due to the popularity of its newly redesigned Sonata and Tucson models, which have seen heavy marketing support and consumer interest since the beginning of the year.
Even though Toyota still remains the leader in new-car shopper activity on kbb.com at 13 percent, its rough year has contributed to a significant decline and narrowed lead for the brand when compared to this time last year, nearly leveling the playing field despite its current popular Sienna marketing campaign.
Similarly, Honda holds the second-most new-car shopper activity on kbb.com at 11 percent, the brand has seen steady declines in share of market interest over the past year due to waning interest in the aging Civic and steady fuel prices lessening the demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles such as the Insight hybrid.
