New financing options and highly publicized price promotions are helping automobile manufacturers drive more traffic to their Web sites, according to Reston, Va.-based comScore Media Metrix.

"The Web has long offered automakers a dynamic and effective marketing channel while providing consumers with a critical source of information," said Peter Daboll, president of comScore Media Metrix, in a statement.

General Motors Corp."s "employee discount" financing promotion helped the carmaker entice 8.5 million visitors to the Web sites of its various brands in June, a 7 percent increase in traffic compared with May and a 60 percent increase compared with the same time last year, comScore said. More than 3.5 million people alone visited the GM.com Web site, up 29 percent over the number of visitors to the site in May.

There was also a large increase in traffic at MitsubishiCars.com in June, up 259 percent from May to 1.2 million visitors, according to comScore, which attributed the spike to an interactive advertisement for that company"s latest Eclipse model.

Traffic to DaimlerChrysler"s site jumped 17 percent between May and June, due in part to the buzz around the release of its new Dodge Charger model, comScore said.

Consumers also turned to the Web in June for information on topics such as planning summer vacations, meals and outdoor activities, comScore said.