Weekly Dealer Car Enquiries: February 13, 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

Building on the positive turnaround since the start of the new year, new car enquiries reached their highest level since the last week of November, 2021. In total, there were 1,580 dealer connections across the course of the week, with Monday, Tuesday and Sunday proving the most eventful days, each circling 250 new leads.

Compared with the week prior, where there were 1,450 new car enquiries via the PriceMyCar platform, the result was equivalent to a 9% week-on-week improvement. Westpac’s Consumer Confidence Index pointed to a decrease of 1.3%, falling short of expectations. 

Nonetheless, the volume of search queries may be starting to pick up in light of growing expectations the Reserve Bank of Australia will increase rates at least once this year, and potentially multiple times. At the same time, the recent price hikes among popular brands like Kia, Mazda and MG may be prompting more urgency among new car buyers.

New car interest by brand

Gains last week were led by the market’s favourite brands, with the strongest increases firmly centred on the names that have dominated new car buying interest for the best part of the last 18 months. This includes Kia, Mazda and Ford.

Perhaps the more prominent story from last week was a sharp move higher from Hyundai, with the brand rising from eighth place up to fourth position for the most searches through the PriceMyCar platform. 

The Korean auto-maker last week indicated it will offer a number of new variants of the Ioniq 5 electric vehicle, including a more affordable option for local car buyers. It is part of a concerted effort to push the EV category, and this might be one of the drawcards playing to the interest of buyers.   

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