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Maruti Alto and Ford Figo emerge as the most searched cars online in Google report

The search engine giant Google has released the report on online vehicle search in the country. The report has brought out a number of interesting facts about the online vehicle search behavior of the Indian buyers. The most interesting among these facts is that the Indian buyers have left behind their counterparts in the world’s largest car markets like Europe and US, in using internet for researching on cars and bikes. Google has used the search data of the period of January 2010 to March 2011 for creating this report on the online vehicle search trends in the country.

The car makers including Maruti, Honda a Hyundai have got the top three spots, respectively, in the online vehicle search report of Google. The next three spots were acquired by US based General Motors, homegrown Tata Motors and Japanese Toyota, respectively. To the Surprise of many, the popular car brands like Ford, Volkswagen and Fiat were at the bottom three positions, respectively.

The report indicates towards the increasing influence of online researching in the decision of buyers. The growth in the online vehicle search stood at 110 percent and 84 percent during year 2009 and 2010, respectively. The lists released by the Google bears a greater importance as it provides a deep insight to the car makers over the position of their brands and the effectiveness of their brand promotion activities.

Once again reflecting the price-consciousness of the Indian buyers, the country’s highest selling and one of the most economical cars – Maruti Alto – topped the chart in the online vehicle search. The popular compact hatchback Ford Figo stood at second spot, clearly indicating its tremendous popularity in the Indian market. While the Hyundai i10 - next gen stood at the third place in the list, Maruti Kizashi was the fourth most online searched car in the country during the above mentioned period. The next three spots were taken by Chevrolet Beat, Nissan Micra and New Hyundai Verna Fluidic, respectively. The cars like Volkswagen Polo, Toyota Etios and Maruti SX4 diesel stood at the bottom three spots, respectively.

The entry-level and mid-size car segment, in the price segment of Rs 2 to 6 lakh, was the most searched segment online, as per the Google report. The segment registered a whopping 50 percent growth in the query volumes, year on year. The Sports Utility Vehicle Segment emerged as the second most online searched car segment with witnessing a jump of 61 percent in online search, year on year. On the other hand, the luxury car segment, in the price range of Rs 15 to 30 lakh, emerged as the fastest growing segment with growth reaching 141% from during June 2010 to May 2011 period, as against same period in preceding years.

Of the all car related queries, the vehicle shopping related queries contributed 49 percent. The queries related to the diesel run cars surged massively by 114 percent in year 2010.The Google vehicle search report indicates towards a maturing Indian automobile industry with more and more buyers using online portals and blogs for researching on their prospective cars.