• by Masha Geller , April 14, 2003

A new national Harris Interactive survey reveals that among those who plan to acquire a new vehicle within the next year, more will consider fuel-efficient vehicles as gas prices rise.

On the advertising side, however, it's the gas-guzzlers that take the top spots. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, sport utility vehicles posted nearly half of all automotive advertising during the first quarter of 2003.

Sport utility vehicles or SUVs, recorded more than 1.2 billion ad impressions, dominating the auto manufacturers market with a 48% share and outnumbering car ads by more than 700 million impressions.

According to the Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance service, SUVs and cars have fought for the top position for more than a year. By the end of Q1 2003, cars and vans ran a close race, each claiming about 19% of the automotive manufacturers market, but second to SUV advertising. Pickup trucks owned 11% of the market, while specialty autos, including hybrids, motorcycles and recreational vehicles, posted the smallest number of impressions, accounting for just three percent of the market.

"The automotive online advertising trend clearly reflects American's current love affair with big vehicles," said Charles Buchwalter, VP of client analytics at Nielsen//NetRatings. "Combining both SUVs, vans and trucks, large vehicles dominated the market nearly four to one."

The Toyota 4Runner posted 534 billion impressions, racing to the top spot as the No. 1 advertised car model. GMC Envoy recorded 355 million impressions landing in second place. The Honda Element accounted for 45 million impressions, while the Nissan Murano was close behind with 44 million ad impressions. The Infinity FX45, rounded out the top five with 40 million impressions. Many of the car manufacturers chose portals and Internet service providers to launch their SUV ad creatives, accounting for 68% of all ads.

"The Internet provides a very qualified target audience for car manufacturers, with more than 50% of the 18-49 age group logging online regularly," Buchwalter said. "Over the past year, we've seen the automotive industry utilize the online medium as a key part of their campaigns, becoming one of the leading industries using rich media technologies to get their message across."

Back on the consumer side, however, Harris data show that given rising fuel costs in the U.S., a majority (81%) of those who are intending to acquire a new vehicle in the next year are likely to consider purchasing or leasing a more fuel-efficient vehicle. Furthermore, of those "intenders," car owners (85%) are more likely than truck owners (72%) to consider acquiring a vehicle that is more fuel-efficient.

While reliability and safety/security are the most important consumer requirements for a new vehicle, 39% of intenders rank fuel economy as one of the top three most important requirements they have for a new vehicle, ahead of comfort (32%), interior (13%) and exterior (24%) styling and passenger capacity (17%). Nearly three-quarters (73%) rank reliability, 55% rank security/safety and 48% rank performance in the top three most important requirements for a new vehicle.