Weekly Dealer Car Enquiries: August 28, 2022

In this series, which we aim to bring to you every week, we’ll be detailing some of the key numbers and trends that we’re seeing in terms of dealer connections made through our site.

As this data is considered somewhat representative of broader industry activity, and serves as one of the more insightful leading indicators for potential car sales, we hope it will fulfil a few purposes for our broad audience. First, to document not just how we’re performing as a business, but how dealers and the wider market stand to perform, so you don’t have to wait til that next set of official sales data.

Without further ado, here’s what happened over the last week.

Total new car enquiries

There was a pullback in the number of dealer connections last week, although that comes off a higher base considering the total reached 1,762 enquiries in the week ending Sunday, August 21, 2022. 

Nonetheless, last week’s total of 1,473, while notably lower, is still a solid result in the context of the overall market, and we see it as encouraging given some of the ‘lows’ recorded prior to our tie-up under leading auto industry publishers, CarExpert.

More broadly, the industry is still beset by a number of problems as far as stock shortages, although this has only become the ‘norm’ of late. This time next week we’re expecting another interest rate hike by the Reserve Bank of Australia, so we are conscious that new car buyers may be preferring to stick with a ‘wait-and-see’ approach at this stage.

New car interest by brand

Mitsubishi, Hyundai, Ford, and Toyota were the biggest losers last week, with new price requests falling by double-digit percentages for each brand. Of course, we’re used to seeing some week-to-week volatility and all, but when some of the market’s other brands show more resilience, it does raise an interesting question.

Take for example, Kia, which has long been a favourite among our members on the PriceMyCar platform. The brand recorded an increase in new car buying interest last week, with queries growing a respectable 3.2%. That may sound like a small result, but when the overall market goes backwards, it speaks volumes for the popularity of this name. 

Elsewhere, Mazda held up relatively well, ensuring it retained second position as the most sought after car brand, and much further down the list the likes of RAM and Suzuki also put in good performances, the latter actually seeing heightened interest last week.

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