WebProNews

Prius, not so much

Automakers foreign and domestic are coping with illiquid credit and declining sales, and search engine volumes reflect that. Over the past three years, the most popular car companies, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Ford have seen steady decline in search traffic.

People are also searching for brands like Jeep, Mazda, Chevy, Kia, and Polaris less, according to Hitwise. What they’re searching for instead are Harley Davidson and Smart Car, ranked 38 and 55 respectively among search terms sending visits to automotive websites.

After those, people are more interested in the 2010 Ford Mustang, ranked at 83 with variations of the name showing up twice in the top 200. Though displacing last November’s top car model searches—for Mini Cooper and Nissan Rogue—interest in the Mustang is probably not in the same window-shopping category as the Lamborghini, searches for which are also up.

In that case, it probably has more to do with getting the most car for the price. As gas prices plummet (and short memories become contagious) people are searching for hybrids much less than they were a year ago, the sticker-shock on them likely much more acute in the uncertain financial climate.

At least we can put off riding in weird, one-liter bullet cars from Volkswagen for a while. Sure, the gas mileage is good (285 mpg), but how does it corner?