Weekly Dealer Car Enquiries: December 4, 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

In the week ending Sunday, December 4, 2022, a total of 1,177 new car enquiries were recorded via the PriceMyCar platform. That result represents a 1.7% increase week-over-week, taking the total number of dealer connections back to where it was a fortnight ago.

Recently, the overall volume of quote requests has been trading in a somewhat narrow band. That comes as interest rates continue to climb, and consumer sentiment sits well off the levels we saw some time ago. 

Nonetheless, the new car market is still ticking over. But a major factor in that is the fact that new car buyers have often had to wait months for delivery of their new car. As such, many vehicles ordered earlier in the year are only just being delivered to their new owners now.

There is also a little less pricing discretion at this time on account of low stock at dealerships. That has meant less scope for new car buyers to haggle prices at a time when we might otherwise see auto-makers start the end of year discounts.

New car interest by brand

Leaders Kia and Ford saw a pullback in new car buying interest last week, although the duo remain clear favourites, well ahead of any other brands. That has been a consistent theme throughout just about all of 2022, with their value-oriented and feature-packed cars attracting continual attention.

Some of the slack was picked up by Mazda, Mitsubishi, and Subaru, with the trio recording a week-on-week increase in dealer connections. Mitsubishi was arguably the biggest beneficiary of consumer preferences last week, with the brand doing enough to move up to fourth position on the list of the most sought-after brands.

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