Which automotive brands do Cars.com mobile consumers visit the most? Which ones do they cross-shop while they are on someone else’s lot? Cars.com tracks the answer by applying our patented On-the-Lot technology. For our July report, Toyota and BMW emerged as the most visited non-luxury and luxury brands. Nissan and Cadillac were the most cross-shopped non-luxury and luxury brands.

Our July analysis offers a glimpse at mobile shopping behavior when consumers are on a dealership’s lot. As we did most recently in April 2018 and December 2017, we identified the top five non-luxury and luxury brands with the most lot visits in the month. For each brand, we identified the top lots that Cars.com mobile shoppers also visited – in other words, the most popular lots for cross-shopping. Here’s what we found:

  • Toyota and BMW are the cars of summer in terms of visits. Toyota, which was the most visited brand in December before being overtaken by Chevrolet in April, reclaimed its top spot. BMW knocked Cadillac off the Number One spot – a position Cadillac had taken from BMW between December and April. Let’s see how these battling brands compare during our next analysis. Will Cadillac and Chevrolet reclaim the Number One rank, or will Toyota and BMW fend them off?
  • Nissan and Mazda shine for cross-shopping. Nissan was the most crossed-shopped non-luxury brand, and Cadillac was the most cross-shopped luxury brand. In fact, Nissan was the only brand that appeared on every other brand’s list, meaning that whether shoppers were visiting Toyota, Chevrolet, CDJR, Ford, Honda, BMW, Cadillac, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, or Audi, they were all checking out Nissans, too – they just weren’t putting Nissan at the top of their lists for a lot visit. It’s also notable that Nissan held this distinction in our December 2017 and April On-the-Lot reports. On the other hand, Cadillac, a popular luxury brand for cross-shopping, was also popular for lot visits as noted above.

Dealerships, pay close attention to which brands are getting the most cross-shopping attention. Be ready to answer shoppers’ questions on the lot about the brands that are indexing high for cross-shopping with your own brands. And Nissan dealerships might want to consider ways to lure shoppers to their lots as shoppers go the last mile to research before purchase. Nissan is clearly a highly considered brand. Getting shoppers to visit the lot, though, is another matter.

For more detail on our July On-the-Lot report, check out the following report. And, check out all of our monthly reports here.