The automotive industry has been battered by bad news for quite some time. With consumers delaying plans to buy new cars due to the recession, I looked at Hitwise search data to see what consumers are doing online. The following chart shows what you’d expect – a steady declline in searches for the top car makers.

I took a look at search terms sending visits to websites in the Automotive category and found some interesting changes. The most searched for car makers remain unchanged: “toyota”, “honda”, “nissan” and “ford”. All of these have seen their share of searches decline over the past three years, as illustrated above.
The search terms I noticed that have risen in the ranks are “harley davidson” and “smart car”. Searches for “harley davidson” ranked 38th among search terms sending visits to Automotive websites in November 2008 up from 55th last year. The term “smart car” ranked 78th up from 241 last year. Terms that have declined in ranking include “jeep”, “mazda”, “chevy”, “kia” and “polaris”.
As for the most searched for models, in November 2007 the top searched for car model came in at #140, “mini cooper” and “nissan rogue” ranked next at #161. This year, “smart car” ranked #78 (up from 241) and “2010 ford mustang” ranked at #83. Interest seems high in the new Ford Mustang, with variations of searches for the car appearing twice in the top 200 automotive search terms.
I didn’t see much evidence of a rise in searches for low priced cars and a decline in luxury cars. (The term “lamborghini” ranked 166 in November 2008 compared with 187 in November 2007 – though these searches are likely aspirational more than shopping). I did notice that searches for hybrids have dropped. With gas prices declining consumers may be having trouble justifying the extra expense. The term ” “toyota prius” ranked 178 in November 2007 compared with the term “2009 toyota prius” ranking at 375 in November 2008.