Weekly Dealer Car Enquiries: December 11, 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

Last week saw new car enquiries continue to ease in the lead up to the holiday season. In total, there were just 1,025 dealer connections in the week ending Sunday, December 11, 2022. 

While normally a busy time of the year for dealerships across the country, it appears as though new car buyers are acting somewhat cautiously given the difficulties in securing a bargain at this time amid a stock shortage across the market.

The latest move by the Reserve Bank of Australia to lift interest rates represents another headwind for consumers to deal with. Following its December Board meeting, the official cash rate now sits at 3.1%, up 25 basis points compared with last month. 

Despite a small improvement, consumer sentiment remains deep in pessimistic territory given the sudden surge in interest rates. In the latest reading, consumer sentiment rose 3% to 80.3 points, albeit that increase is based on a two-and-a-half year low. Business confidence has also turned negative for the first time since a year ago, further weighing on new car buying interest.

New car interest by brand

Mitsubishi, Ford, Isuzu, and Mazda were among the brands that took the biggest hit last week, with each recording a double-digit percentage pull-back in terms of leads. 

Although the overall market recorded a sizeable decrease, the story wasn’t so bleak across the board, with the likes of Nissan and Toyota defying the trend to record a week-on-week increase in quote requests. 

The total volume of inbound price enquiries last week was observed over a smaller sample of car brands, with 40 makes of car at the centre of queries from new car buyers. During the preceding week there were 44 different brands that caught the attention of prospective customers.

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