IRVINE, Calif. — In offering a potential explanation for why a quartet of Chrysler Group vehicles made the top five list for shopping activity growth on Kelley Blue Book's Kbb.com, site editors invoked a bit of Beatles-related humor in this week's Hot Car Report.

"When (John) Lennon and (Paul) McCartney wrote the lyric 'Money can't buy me love,' they proved that they were musicians and not car salesman!" editors noted. "Three of the top four vehicles in our data this week have generated little enthusiastic interest since introduction in 2007, but their status in the Hot Car Report proves that there is no substitute for cold hard cash.

"Chrysler's three small crossovers, the Jeep Compass, Patriot and Dodge Caliber, as well as the soon-to-replaced Jeep Grand Cherokee, all have seen up to $5,000 placed on their hoods and shoppers at Kbb.com are responding," they added.

More specifically, the Hot Car Report puts the Compass at No. 1, as it showed 35.4- percent week-over-week growth. The Patriot (up 32.8 percent) was No. 3, followed by the Caliber (24.4 percent) in fourth and the Grand Cherokee (22.4 percent) in the No. 5 spot.

The BMW 5 Series was No. 2 with 35.2-percent growth. And for Kbb.com's intro and redesigned models list, the 2011 BMW 5 Series has led the pack with 201.4-percent growth.

"This is good news for BMW, as the 5 is a very important component in their ever-increasing sales volume targets and it highlights new interest in the luxury sedan segment among U.S. shoppers," officials added.

Rounding out the top five on the intro and redesigned models list were the 2011 Grand Cherokee (up 27.6 percent), 2011 BMW X5 (up 6.7 percent), 2011 Ford Fiesta (up 5.6 percent), 2011 Ford Mustang (5 percent) and 2011 Toyota Avalon (1.8 percent).

Conversely, the units whose activity dipped the most on the intro and redesigned list were the 2011 Infiniti M (down 15.2 percent), 2011 Ford Edge (down 9.5 percent), 2011 Jaguar XJ Series (down 4.1 percent), 2011 Lincoln MKX (down 2.6 percent) and the 2011 Buick Regal (down 1.6 percent).

On the overall list, the bottom was composed by the Volkswagen New Beetle (down 17.3 percent), the Chevrolet Corvette (down 16.5 percent), the Kia Optima (down 15.3 percent), the Hyundai Genesis (down 11.4 percent) and the Lincoln MKX (down 11.2 percent).