With 2013 rapidly approaching to an end, we're curious to see which new vehicles attracted the most attention from buyers (see 2012 results here), but we'll have to wait a week or so for automakers to crunch out the official sales numbers. Until then, we can take a look at a list with AutoTrader's 20 most popular new vehicles of 2013.
For those of you who are not familiar with AutoTrader , it's one of the major online marketplaces for both new and used cars in the U.S.
The list was determined by examining the number of car shoppers who click on a posting for a new car up for sale on the website, which receives around 16 million monthly visitors, and does not take into consideration actual sales.
Unsurprisingly, the best-selling vehicle in the States, the Ford F-150 truck, took up the number one spot.
While we anticipated many of the other cars and trucks listed in the Top 20, there were plenty of surprise participants, such as the Jeep Wrangler in second place, the Ford Mustang that came in fourth and the Chevrolet Corvette in ninth spot.
"Corvette's place on the list is a bit deceiving, because interest declined through most of the year as shoppers waited for the 2014 model, but once listings for the all-new vehicle were posted on the site interest skyrocketed, and it was among the top three most popular vehicles on the site for the last three months of the year," explained Isabelle Helms, vice president of Research and Market Intelligence, AutoTrader.
Ford was the most represented brand in the Top 20 list with six vehicles, including the year's biggest mover, the Ford Fusion that climbed 16 spots compared to 2012, while Chevrolet was next with four. Half of the entrants were pickup trucks.
"The full-size truck segment is historically the most popular vehicle segment on our site, but it grew this year to garner more than 20 percent share of shopper interest," said Helms. "We believe this is due to a combination of growth in the housing and construction sectors and the number of models that were all-new for the 2013 and 2014 model years."
