Transit and Transporter Battle for Top-Used Van Choice Honours in 2012

    OXFORD, ENGLAND, January 28, 2013 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The latest research by Van Trader, the UK's leading used van marketplace, shows that the most searched van in 2012 was the Ford Transit, just ahead of the Volkswagen Transporter. There were a total of 1.55 million searches for the Transit and 1.53 million for the Transporter, well ahead of the third-placed Mercedes-Benz Sprinter at 765,651. During 2012 the Van Trader website attracted a total of 32 million searches and unique visits increased by 15% when compared with 2011, up to 7.24 million.

Top Ten used van searches in 2012

1. Ford Transit 1,552,509
2. Volkswagen Transporter 1,526,889
3. Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 765,651
4. Vauxhall Vivaro 726,017
5. Mercedes-Benz Vito 672,087
6. Ford Transit Connect 629,298
7. Volkswagen Caddy 606,728
8. Renault Trafic 494,899
9. Vauxhall Astra 453, 691
10. Vauxhall Combo 300,856

Rob Morphet, Product Director, Van Trader added: "Demand for used Transits and Transporters was double that for the third-placed Sprinter during 2012. There is a feeling within the industry that a short wheelbase Transit or Transporter is seen as a better buy for those small businesses and tradesmen seeking a used van and the number of searches reinforces that. Interestingly, with much higher levels of Transit stock available, there were four times as many people searching for every Transporter than for every Transit."

About Van Trader/Auto Trader:

Reaching over 7.2 million unique users annually; featuring 27,000 vans for sale and offering supporting products including van insurance, Van Trader has 1,100 advertisers and 4.3 million adverts viewed monthly. Auto Trader is the UK's number one motoring digital marketplace with over 11 million monthly unique users, carrying out over 120 million searches on more than 410,000 new and used vehicles. Over 2.5 million people access Auto Trader via their mobile devices every month, through the mobile-optimised site and apps developed for iPhone, iPad and Android. Auto Trader is part of Trader Media Group. For more information, visit www.autotrader.co.uk

Trader Media Group is Europe's largest specialist multi-media group and supplier of leading automotive marketing products and services. Brands included in the Trader Media Group stable include: Auto Trader, Deltapoint, RAZSOR, 2ndByte and Autotrade-mail. Trader Media Group operates in the UK, Ireland and South Africa and is jointly owned by Guardian Media Group and Apax Partners. For more information, visit www.tradermediagroup.com

For further information, please contact:
Andrew Andersz
Trader Media Press Centre
Tel: +44 (0)1865 342104
Email: [email protected]

# # #