• by Karl Greenberg , June 27, 2013

The auto show season -- it seems it just ended -- is upon us again. Just around the corner are Shanghai, Tokyo and Los Angeles. Jumpstart Automotive Group analyzed online auto shopping trends for the last season of auto shows and, across the vertical sites on which it sells media, including Car and Driver, U.S. News Automotive, JD Power Autos, and NADAguides, the hometown teams did well. 

Jumpstart said the Los Angeles and Detroit (NAIAS) shows drove overall traffic across its portfolio of sites, while New York and Chicago drove traffic to specific vehicles. The Chevrolet Spark EV gained a 94% increase in interest at the Los Angeles show. Toyota grabbed an 80% increase in interest at the Chicago show because of its redesigned Tundra. And Land Rover’s Range Rover Sport experienced a 94% increase at New York after “James Bond” actor Daniel Craig unveiled the vehicle by cruising around Manhattan streets.

The firm measures share of shopper interest by looking at the percent of people visiting a brand’s make/model pages during the show and in the three weeks prior. It then compared those numbers to the total number of visitors to Jumpstart’s portfolio of digital publishers.

“Domestic auto brands raced out of the gate this year and continue to do well across Jumpstart’s sites,” said Libby Murad-Patel, Jumpstart’s senior director of strategic insights, in a statement. She said that Jumpstart numbers follow other sales stats the market has seen over the past couple of months: renewed interest in the truck and SUV segments. "Brands in these segments that generated noteworthy online traffic increases this auto show season were Land Rover, Jeep, and Ram."

The five vehicles whose unveilings spiked the most consumer interest at the Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago and New York shows were Chevy Spark, Range Rover Sport, Ford Fiesta, Jaguar XK and Toyota Tundra. In Los Angeles, which tends to be focused on fuel efficiency, Chevrolet's unveiling of the Spark, Ford's reveal of its new Fiesta, and Fiat's event for the  500 drove the most buzz on Jumpstart sites. In Detroit, which tends to be more about performance, it was Jeep Patriot, Corvette, and Lexus IS. At New York’s show at the Jacob Javits Center, where the theme tends toward premium, it was Range Rover, Jaguar XK and Audi A3.