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As the holiday season approaches — a time where consumer confidence tends to grow  — AutoTrader.com’s New Car Insights Report found another interesting trend.

Consumers in the market for a new car are turning their attention toward the luxury segment, as high-line vehicles gained significant increases in consumer interest this October, according to company research.

This trend may be pointing to  pent-up demand that may be unleashed in the near future if consumer confidence in the economy increases, officials explained.

Delving into luxury segment-level activity for this past month, even though full-size trucks took the top spot in the ranking of the segments, the luxury segments “made the biggest waves from September to October,” noted company officials.

The  luxury car segment increased 0.8 points in share of new-car interest, and the luxury SUV segment increased 0.6 points.

“The strong movement of luxury vehicles on the site in October points to a silver lining in the black clouds of the economy,” said AutoTrader’s vice president of automotive insights, Rick Wainschel.

“Consumers appear to be ready to get back to enjoying some of the finer things in life, and as their confidence increases, we could soon see the luxury segment realizing the benefits of this pent-up demand,” he continued.

So where did the luxury segment see the biggest climbs?

In looking at the site’s “Big Movers”, or those that have gained significant increases in consumer interest month-over-month, luxury vehicles made up half of the 20 units on the list.

Five of these luxury vehicles on the list were SUVs, including three from the Land Rover brand.

In fact, the Range Rover Evoque was the biggest mover on the site, climbing 273 spots to No. 36, in terms of consumer interest.

Also of note, this very same unit was recently named Motor Trend’s 2012 SUV of the Year.

The Range Rover Sport and LR4 also moved up, increasing 99 and 25 spots, respectively.

As for smaller luxury units, the Hyundai Genesis moved up 67 spots from September to No. 31.

AutoTrader attributed this model’s rise in interest to the $1,500 incentive Hyundai placed on the model beginning October 1.

“This incentive may signal Hyundai’s attempt to capitalize on the pent-up demand in the luxury segment,” according to AutoTrader analysts.

Other luxury vehicles on the climb included the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, which saw a rise in consumer interest for the second month in a row. 

Other luxury cars on an upward trend in October were the Cadillac CTS, the BMW 3 Series and 5 Series and the Lexus IS, the site revealed.

AutoTrader also offered the following charts, respectively, to illustrate its findings:

—The top 20 big movers by vehicle interest,
—Theshare of interest for top 10 most viewed models for the luxury car segment
—The share of interest for top 10 most viewed models for the luxury SUV segment.