Vehicle searches for superminis and city cars have increased by an average of 15% year on year

Demand for smaller, more fuel efficient cars is growing, reflecting motorists’ concern about the cost of owning and running bigger vehicles, according to new data from Auto Trader, the UK’s no 1 motoring website and magazine.

Auto Trader’s data shows that searches for superminis, such as the Vauxhall Corsa, Ford Fiesta and Renault Clio, are up by an average of 12% in June 2008 compared to the same period last year, with vehicles such as the Honda Jazz and Peugeot 207 generating over a 45% increase in searches year on year. This compares to searches for used cars overall increasing by 9% year on year.

Searches for city cars on Auto Trader are also up, with an 18% increase in the number of searches in June 08 compared with June 07.

Matt Thompson, Marketing Director at Auto Trader, comments: “Our data, collected from nearly 81,000,000 vehicle searches in June 2008, clearly shows that demand for smaller, more economical and fuel efficient vehicles is significantly on the increase.

“Further evidence of this can be seen from our most recent research on fuel costs, which generated a record 31,600 responses from British motorists. The results showed that there are fundamental material changes in the way the UK motorist is behaving. Since fuel has broke the £1 a litre barrier, 40% of motorists have reduced the number of journeys they make – the equivalent to over 12 million motorists. Add to that the 70% who are shopping around for cheaper fuel, over 50% who are considering alternatively-fuelled vehicles and 10% more breakdowns due to running out of fuel according to Britannia Rescue, the scale of changes becomes dramatically clear.

“In summary, there is no getting away from the fact that through rising fuel costs, road tax and a general increase in the cost of living, the UK motorist is hurting. We are therefore launching the Auto Trader £500 Challenge, designed to save each motorists around £500 a year on average through pragmatic and practical money-saving tips and advice.”