With crude oil for January (’08) delivery closing at $87.50 last week, the lowest price in 6 weeks (and down from an all time high of over $99 a barrel on 11/21), searches and visitor traffic at hybridsuv.com often mirror fuel costs.  Obviously, people buy gallons of gas…not barrels of oil, but it’s interesting to watch the correlation between what people are paying at the pump, and how many people are looking for hybrid cars and suvs.

A similar search pattern was recently noted in a press release regarding the Cars.com Consumer Search Index, which stated “With gas prices again topping $3 a gallon…consumer interest in hybrid vehicles on Cars.com has increased dramatically over the past month. According to Cars.com’s latest Consumer Search Index, all hybrid vehicles on the site have experienced an increase in consumer searches. Six of the top 10 and 12 of the top 25 new cars experiencing the largest increase in search activity over the past month are hybrids.”.  That report was preceeded by one released in August which included, “…as gas prices begin to fall, so does consumer interest in fuel-efficient vehicles, according to the latest Cars.com Consumer Search Index. Cars.com is reporting a decline in searches for hybrids and other fuel-efficient cars, all of which saw dramatic increases over the last several months when gas prices were at all-time highs.”.

While searches for various hybrid suv models have gone up at the same time gasoline prices have, we’ve also noticed how specific search phrases change as well.  As gas topped $3 per gallon in the midwest a few weeks ago, some of our most popular queries included “hybrid suv gas mileage”, “best suv gas mileage”, and ”best mpg suv hybrids”.  Now, with fuel costs down nearly 40 cents/gallon, and overall visitor traffic down 20%, the more popular research has changed back to “biggest hybrid suv” and “7 passenger suv”.  Wonder what will happen if gas goes ever goes to $4 or $5 per gallon?