Most Researched Cars? KBB Knows!

The Honda Fit placed #15 on the Kelley Blue Book list of most cars researched in 2008. Honda managed to take six of the twenty top spots in the most recent year according to Kelley.

When you own and manage one of the top research sites online for cars, the information you gather can certainly be helpful to the buying public. In the case of Kelley Blue Book, the company who has been providing vehicle buyers and sellers with new and used vehicle information since 1926, you also have a trust factor that few other companies can deliver.

To that end, Kelley Blue Book (or KBB) has released its list of the 20 most popular car searches for 2008. Noticeably, Honda and Toyota were dominant occupying a combined 13 slots on the list. A handful of domestic models, including the Ford Escape, made the list but if KBB’s results hold true to consumer demand, the Japanese makes with 15 spots taken will continue to dominate in 2009 as well.

Kbb.com’s Most-Researched New Vehicles of 2008:

1. Honda Civic
2. Honda Accord
3. Toyota Camry
4. Toyota Corolla
5. Nissan Altima
6. Honda CR-V
7. Toyota Prius
8. Toyota Highlander
9. Toyota RAV4
10. Mazda3
11. Toyota Yaris
12. Ford Escape
13. Honda Odyssey
14. Honda Pilot
15. Honda Fit
16. Ford Mustang
17. Chevrolet Malibu
18. Toyota Sienna
19. MINI Cooper
20. Volkswagen Jetta

“The site traffic on Kelley Blue Book’s kbb.com demonstrates what is on the minds of today’s new-car shoppers, especially when examining the most-researched new-vehicles of 2008,” said Jack R. Nerad, executive editorial director and executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book and kbb.com. “Continued interest in Honda and Toyota, Chevrolet’s home-run Malibu redesign and an increase in visits to more fuel-efficient, economical vehicles is an accurate reflection of the marketplace in 2008.”

Now that gas prices have retreated from historical high levels, will consumers begin to increase their research on big pickup trucks such as the Dodge Ram and Ford F-150 as well as on big sport/utility vehicles such as the Toyota Sequoia and GMC Yukon? That is kind of hard to tell as the current economic climate plus consumer concern that gas prices may once again spike will likely temper interest in less fuel efficient models.

American manufacturers need to improve their lot and, with the introduction of the Chevrolet Camaro next month and several new models coming from Ford, the KBB list for 2009 just may offer some interesting trends.

Source: Kelley Blue Book