No matter the resolution to the current state of the auto industry, the impact of a bailout on car buying behavior is much debated. Clearly people are concerned based on the traffic to gmfactsandfiction.com. With nearly 180,000 unique visitors in November; a 3000%+ increase over October.

How are people finding out about this site? In the chart below we can see that 3 of the top 10 sites referring people to gmfactsandfiction.com are GM brands.

Furthermore, at number 10 is YouTube with the below video.

But how will it impact vehicle sales? See a great piece of market insight from our cousins at TNS who recently survey consumers on purchase intent. The TNS survey showed that in either scenario (Government aid or bankruptcy) vehicle sales are likely to be impacted negatively. Bankruptcy, however, the worse of the two, could potentially cost the industry $50 billion in sales.

So will people buy GM cars? The facts show that it really depends on the bailout – either way hold your breath.

We know it’s that time of year when we first see it; a Lexus wrapped in a huge red bow could only mean one thing. Lexus’s annual December to Remember sales event is certainly the most recognizable holiday/winter sales event by any measure. But, while the most recognizable, it’s no longer the only one of its kind out there. Traditionally, December is the number one vehicle sales month of the year as dealers try to push out as many model years as possible before the next year’s vehicles hit the showroom floors. Of course with the current state of the economy don’t expect any sales records to be broken this December. However, that won’t stop any of these special sales events, and Lexus has company this year with Acura running its Drive Home for the Holidays event as well as Mercedes Winter Event.

The strange thing though is that only Lexus appears to be spreading the word online with banner ads promoting the December to Remember event while it’s almost impossible to find an ad for Acura or MB. While Lexus is promoting their current sales event, Acura and MB are concentrating their ad efforts on new model launches.

Of course the next logical question is; Has Lexus experienced any significant demand increases based on their dedication to this annual event? So I looked at the daily reach to each of these OEM’s websites over the last month.

What stands out the most here is the big jump in mid-November for Lexus which coincides with the beginning of their sales event advertising. However, we can also see Acura making a significant jump during the same time frame. The trend for all three is the same over time, though. Interest might have peaked during the onset of the events, but they have leveled out and are on somewhat of a downturn recently.

So what’s the conclusion? Is it that Lexus’s sales event is so commonplace now that people simply come to expect it, or is that the current state of the economy has people holding off on new vehicle purchases? I tend to lean towards the lack of online promotion of these sales events being the key factor. We see them plastered all over TV but we hardly see anything online. Perhaps well-placed ads on sites known to be visited by luxury car enthusiasts would be the most effective.

Taking a look at BMW and Mercedes-Benz’s US based websites (bmwusa.com and mbusa.com respectively) and it’s easy to see that both are featuring their new diesels front and center. The Benz’s are currently on sale in the US with Beemer’s soon to come.

Both vehicles are impressive with fast 0-60 times, more torque than their gasoline counterparts and of course, better fuel economy; both claim nearly 600 miles on just one tank of fuel. This statistic instantly made me wonder how big the fuel tanks were but that took a little digging, or in BMW’s case, a lot of digging because it’s not posted anywhere on their site. Size of the tank aside, both post mpg figures in between 23-26 highway for SUV’s and BMW claims 36 mpg highway for its diesel 3 series. These are certainly impressive numbers, more impressive in my opinion than traditional hybrids that may only improve your gas mileage by a couple gallons per mile.

As with most new fuel efficient vehicles that have made their way onto the scene I figured prices of these vehicles would be significantly more than their gasoline counterparts but surprisingly they aren’t. Only able to research MB pricing I found costs to be either equal or slightly higher than the base gasoline version of each vehicle, not bad! Couple this minor price premium with a decline in diesel prices and this could be a match made in heaven.

So which of these brands is capitalizing on the new diesel craze the most? I decided to see which sites were people visited the most when searching for “diesel cars.” To my surprise Volvocars.com was ranked eighth, mbusa.com twenty-second and bmwusa.com was not even in the top 50.

Volvo is going to be releasing a new series of diesel cars under the name Drive, in Europe at least. These diesels achieve about 53 mpg but there is no US plan for them for now.

It appears the manufacturers with vehicles actually in or soon to be in the US market, and in particular Beemer, need to focus a little more attention on search engine marketing and search engine optimization to ensure their brands rank at the top of the search heap. Until then, Volvo is winning the diesel keyword battle.

Type in “transfer lease” or “trade lease” into any search engine and two sites come up as the most prevalent: leasetrader.com and swapalease.com.

These sites have become more commonplace as people struggle in the tough economic times to bail out of their pricey leases. Without such companies, individuals are forced to either pay off the entire contract balance or enter upside down into a new vehicle based on the unpaid balance of the previous lease. Of course, these options don’t suit many people, especially in today’s market.

The end result, traffic to leasetrader.com is up 42% year-over-year.

And, swapalease.com’s daily reach is seeing huge increases as well.

The end result is a win/win in my opinion. Those struggling are quickly able to end a burdensome lease and those looking for a short term vehicle option have more and more vehicles to choose from as more people seek this lease bailout option.

Commercials for the new Volkswagen Routan starring Brooke Shields began hitting the airwaves in mid-September and peaked this past weekend, according to TNS Adscope. I don’t know about you, but I spent many hours in front of the TV with the Red Sox playing every day except Sunday, with the Patriots filling that gap, and I certainly had had enough of this commercial by the end of Monday night’s game. However, I guess the ad, which correlates a baby boom with the vehicle launch, served its purpose; to drive people to the new Routan microsite, routanboom.org.

I wondered if these ads in tandem with a microsite are really drawing people in so I took a look at daily visitation to this site. While I was surprised to see that it appears VW has not bid on the keyword phrase “Brooke Shields,” as I would think this would only increase traffic to both sites, it does in fact appear that these ads have had an impact. We can see significant spikes at ad-launch and during this past weekend. Important to note as well is the fact that routanboom.org was the 9th ranked site in driving traffic to vw.com in September. This should only increase in October as ad spends increases.

So what’s the lesson learned? Is it that repetitive ads spotlighting Brooke Shields are that captivating? I think not. While there may be some small truth to that, like when you find yourself humming that product theme song of a commercial you hardly remember seeing, I don’t think that’s the answer. Rather, I think ads starring current celebs placed during enormous viewing audience events coupled with their own microsites are the key. When virtually everyone has internet access easily at their disposal, if not on their cell phone, a microsite will generate the biggest boom.

Everyone is sick of hearing about gas prices, but the truth is that the rise in gas prices has had a significant impact on the automotive industry as a whole. Some manufacturers have cut or stopped production altogether, while others have delayed new vehicle launches, closed plants, and placed historically high amounts of cash on the hood, all in an effort to avoid total destruction. In an attempt to survive, many have gotten into the hybrid game; developing entirely new vehicles or modifying existing models. Hybrid no longer means sub-compact, now consumers can get their Silverados, Tahoes and Escalades in hybrid form. More recently, some manufactures have announced the release of fuel cell or battery powered vehicles that contain no gasoline whatsoever to power the engine.

The newest player to enter this game is Chevrolet, with the Volt. The Volt is a lithium-ion battery powered vehicle set to launch by the end of 2010. Today, on their 100th anniversary, GM plans to debut the production version of the Volt. With this debut comes a key question, can the Volt change the consumer’s mind of GM from ‘gas guzzler’ to ‘fuel sipper’? To-date the ball is certainly rolling in that direction, with roughly 40,000 people signing up on the unofficial waiting list at www.gm-volt.com, a site developed by New Yorker Lyle Dennis. A sort of micro-site, it’s an enthusiast site without any official ties back to GM. But apparently, Dennis isn’t the only one who’s interested in the Volt, nearly 100,000 unique visitors went to the site in August.

At Compete, we also looked at what online buzz, if any, the Volt was generating. To do this we looked at the number of search terms containing “Chevrolet Volt” or “Chevy Volt” in July and August. We found the most significant impact following the commercial spot during the opening ceremonies of the Olympics on 8/8/08, with a 171% increase week-over-week.

Early indicators show that GM appears to be headed in the right direction with the Volt, thanks to timely ad spots and online buzz. With Hummer’s future in constant question it would seem the Volt is ready to take over as the image of GM. Only time will tell what the true impact will be, but I bet I can guess what GM will be wishing for as they blow out the birthday candles today.