CALIFORNIA — Auto-related searches were among the top trends and search terms in 2013, according to lists released by three top search engines. Tesla was particularly popular among Internet users, ranking No. 1 on Google’s list of U.S. Trending Car Companies and No. 6 on Bing’s Top News Stories of 2013.
Bing searchers were also interested in automotive sales, with “Toyota Outsells Chevy” ranking No. 5 on the Most Searched Economic Terms. This was behind Fiscal Cliff (No.1), Federal Reserve (No.2), Detroit Goes Bankrupt (No.3) and Student Loans Interest Rates (No.5).
On YouTube, actor Jean-Claude Van Damme’s epic split to promote Volvo trucks went viral. The video showed Van Damme easing into the splits with each foot secured on a Volvo truck as it drives into the sunset to the tune of Enya’s “Only Time.” The video — with its fitting lyrics, “Who can say where the road goes?” — came in at No. 6 on YouTube’s Top Trending Videos of 2013.
Today, Google released its 13th annual Zeitgeist, or a “spirit of the times.” It allows users to browse through archives of Google’s top searches. The top automotive search terms are listed below. (Trending queries are based on the highest amount of traffic over a sustained period of time in ’13, while top search queries are the most popular search terms for the year, ranked in order by volume of searches).
The Chevy Volt topped the charts for the top trending ‘new car’ and ‘hybrid and electric cars’ lists.
US Trending Car Companies:
Tesla
Bugatti
MINI
Ford
Jeep
Toyota
GMC
Dodge
Subaru
Mazda
US Most Searched New Cars:
2014 Corvette Stingray
2014 Chevrolet Camaro
2013 Honda Civic
2014 Honda Accord
2013 Jeep Wrangler
2014 Ford F-150
2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee
2014 Ford Explorer
2013 Range Rover
2014 Nissan Altima
US Trending New Cars:
2014 Chevy Volt
2013 Acura NSX
2014 Fiat 500
2014 Chevy Sonic
2014 Ford Focus
2014 Kia Optima
2014 MINI Cooper
2013 Scion iQ
2014 Subaru BRZ
2014 Lexus GS 350
Trending Hybrid and Electric Cars
Chevy Volt
Fisker Karma
Toyota Prius C
Toyota Prius V
Toyota Camry Hybrid
Hyundai Sonata Hybrid
Kia Optima Hybrid
Ford Focus Electric
Honda Civic Hybrid
Mitsubishi I-Miev
On Yahoo’s most searched terms for the year, Miley Cyrus (No.1) and Kim Kardashian (No.2) took the top spots; no automotive brands appear on the overall list, nor did they appear on Twitter’s top 10 lists.










