Whenever the quarterly survey email goes out, the one where a response is required for every vehicle in the active panel, I pay very close attention to the response rate. The May results potentially include far more models than the previous two sets of results, and I’m personally very excited about this. But the sample sizes for many models will be borderline, such that many could fall a single response short of the minimum I need to report resutls. The higher the response rate, the less likely this becomes.

Early results are very promising. The data collection will run the entire month, but in the first 26 hours data has already been provided on over 1,200 vehicles, a full quarter of the entire number surveyed. Three months ago the response rate at this point was 21 percent. Six months ago, it was 22 percent.

An extra four percent might not sound by much, but if it follows through to the end of the month it will likely mean results for a number of additional models.

Of course, it remains to be seen whether a higher percentage of people are responding, or whether they are simply responding sooner. One thing that continues to shock me about the Internet is how quickly things happen. Data collection will run through the end of the month, but at least half of those who will ever respond respond within the first 24 hours.

A final thing to note is how rapidly the active panel is growing. Six months ago 1,863 vehicles were surveyed. Three months ago this had grown to 3,063. The initial email this month included 4,855 vehicles, and this will likely top 5,000 with the follow-up. Yes, the numbers remain small. But, growing by about 65 percent every quarter, it won’t remain this way for long.

I am very grateful for everyone’s help with this. The results you’ve been waiting for are coming.