Driven matches Autotrader audience

Maserati concept design as seen in Driven.

Driven.co.nz has matched the Autotrader audience after just a month in market, the website's managing editor says.

Driven's print magazine accompanies the NZ Herald every Wednesday and Saturday and launched its standalone site in late March.

Managing editor Tony Verdon said the site had been going well and has matched the Autotrader audience after just a month in market.

"In terms of unique browsers, we're doing better than we were when we were sitting on the Herald [site]."

Driven's Facebook presence had also increased from "a couple of hundred" to more than 5000, he said.

Researcher AC Nielsen revealed last week that 750,000 New Zealanders planed to buy a car over the next year and 78 per cent of them went online to help make a purchase decision.

Trade Me was the most used website by prospective buyers, attracting 79 per cent of all online vehicle researchers, compared with Autotrader (33 per cent), Google (33 per cent) and Turners (32 per cent).

Toyota (23 per cent), the AA (22 per cent), stuff.co.nz/motoring (12 per cent), carjam.co.nz (12 per cent), Nissan (12 per cent) and Mazda (11 per cent) rounded out the top 10 websites used.