Lower gas prices and Japanese incentives drive auto shopper demand in June

Nashville, TN — After two straight months of decline, the Dataium ASI index turns upward indicating stronger sales volumes for the automotive industry over the next 45-60 days. June's SAAR declined 10%, which mirrored the ASI index's decline for April and May. Further, inventory searches for SUVs and light trucks gained share during June, particularly at the end of the month when gas prices began to moderate. Consumers hedged their bets as well, with the Hybrid share of online inventory searches reaching its highest level in June. Visit Gaspriceaffect.com for more information.

Highlights from this month's ASI index report include Japanese brands up 15% as a group, Toyota and Honda leads per dealership website were both up over 20% from May to June. SUV, as a segment, was down 2% month over month; however, strong gains were seen at the end of June, as gas prices declined.

"It is gratifying to see the index tick up after two months of decline," stated Eric Brown, CEO of Dataium. "Though the positive trend is encouraging, there are still many storm clouds circling, domestic turmoil in oil-producing countries, debt battles in Washington, DC, and continued weak job creation, all threaten future strengthening of the index," he added.

Through proprietary data collection and analytics, Dataium aggregates and measures billions of auto shopper events from over 20 million active auto shoppers across a network of diverse automotive websites. The ASI index consistently mirrors automotive sales volumes 45-60 days out. Dataium not only provides data and research on auto shopper/buyer behavior nationally, but by specific makes, models, vehicle segments, and specific markets as well. The national report is available for download at dataium.com/library. Dataium reports and dashboards are available on a subscription basis or may be customized to access real-time updates and specific data requirements.

To request complete access to Dataium's ASI predictive modeling tool on future consumer demand by make, model, trim level, segment, region, and market, contact Dataium at www.dataium.com/contact, or call 877-896-DATA (3282).

About Dataium, LLC
Dataium is the largest aggregator of Internet automotive shopping activity. Via its Cloud Intelligence™ platform, the company collects, analyzes, and indexes billions of online automotive shopping events from over 20 million active auto shoppers. The company supports cutting-edge data collection and reporting technology; VisiCogn® Collection Utility, VisiCogn® Knowledge Center, VisiCogn® INSITE, and is also known for its ASI™ index. For more information, visit www.dataium.com, email: info@dataium.com, or call 877-896-DATA (3282).

07/22/11