Kelley Blue Book, www.kbb.com, a leading provider of new car and used car information, today announced the results of the latest Kelley Blue Book Market Intelligence survey of in-market new-car shoppers on kbb.com, detailing consumers’ likeliness to buy a car from a bankrupt U.S. auto manufacturer.

When asked how likely they would be to buy a car from a U.S. manufacturer if the company were to go bankrupt, in-market new-car shoppers’ likelihood improved in May 2009 versus April 2009. In May, 52% said they were likely to buy from General Motors if GM were going through bankruptcy versus 47 percent in April. In addition, 31% said they were likely to buy from Chrysler if it were going through bankruptcy in May versus 29% in April.

"The latest Kelley Blue Book Market Intelligence data suggests that as consumers have learned more about the special circumstances of the Chrysler and GM bankruptcies, what they have found has reassured them about making such a purchase," said Jack R. Nerad, executive editorial director and executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book and kbb.com.

"While in April new-car shoppers didn’t have much information about the bankruptcies of the two companies, by May it was much clearer that the U.S. government would continue to offer aid to the two ailing carmakers, keeping them in operation. This reassured enough buyers to bring a modest improvement in overall likelihood to purchase from Chrysler and GM."

The April wave of this Kelley Blue Book Market Intelligence study was fielded to 298 in-market new-car shoppers on Kelley Blue Book’s kbb.com from April 3-6, 2009, and the May wave was fielded to 715 in-market new-car shoppers on Kelley Blue Book’s kbb.com from May 11-18, 2009.