NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Dataium, an aggregator of in-market automotive shopper behavior, today released its monthly Automotive Shopper Intensity (ASI™) report for September, which showed a 9.87 percent decrease from August.

The firm also offered its expectations for the seasonally adjusted annual rate for the next two month, predicting the rate in October to be 12.9 million units before falling 3.9 percent to 12.4 million units in November.

Dataium noted that automotive shopping intensity declined across all segments for the second consecutive month, with shopping intensity for the sedan segment falling 30 percent. Shopping intensity for the truck, compact and SUV segments also fell, declining 27, 18 and 7 percent, respectively. Much of those declines, the firm reported, were strategic shifts in auto production and marketing.

Volvo’s retirement of its C70 and C30 models drove shopping intensity towards the C70 and the similar, more luxurious S80 models online, as shoppers researched ways to find remaining inventory. BMW is similarly retiring its M3 model line as the German automaker focuses its efforts on the i3. The brand experienced an increase in shopping intensity towards the 3 series, 5 series and 7 series, the firm reported.

Volkswagen announced its Tiguan SUV had its best year-to-date sales month in September, and the VW Jetta experienced an increase in shopping intensity for the month as well, indicating that record VW sales should continue into next month.

The Honda CRV’s lasting popularity with shoppers helped it attract a fair share of shopping intensity, despite the release of the competing redesigned 2014 Ford Escape. The Dodge Ram 1500 also experienced an increase in shopping intensity, with the upcoming arrival of fuel-efficient EcoDiesel models at dealerships driving online demand for the popular pickup.

“With the government shutdown affecting everything from manufacturer supply coming through customs to consumer confidence at the checkout counter, shoppers have started to adjust their browsing behaviors in preparation for the holidays,” said Jason Ezell, president of Dataium. “Auto manufacturers are reacting to a cooling market by ramping up their marketing efforts. Manufacturers are focusing their promotions on cutting-edge technology and attractive new features in order to overcome declining shopping intensity.”

To request complete access to Dataium's ASI predictive modeling tool on future consumer demand by make, model, trim level, segment, region, and market, visit www.dataium.com.