Weekly Dealer Car Enquiries: February 14, 2021

In this series, which we hope to bring to you on a regular basis, 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 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, February 14, we saw new car enquiries ease back from an all-time record. Across the week there were 2,620 enquiries in total, which was 134 fewer than that the week prior, when the record was set at 2,754. 

The 4.9% drop in new car buying interest was rather tiny in the grand scheme of things, particularly when broader considerations are taken into account. Sure, consumer confidence continued its ascent higher, however, the snap lockdown imposed by the Victorian government to end the week had an immediate impact on sentiment, especially with dealerships closed right across the state. 

This issue may also have an impact on the numbers for the coming week, albeit if the lockdown is ended in line with the proposed timeline, the overall impact should be fairly negligible.

New car interest by brand

Five out of the top six car brands, as measured by interest across the PriceMyCar community, were on the slide last week. However, the drop-off in terms of buying interest was rather small, illustrating that had it not been for the late-week lockdown in Victoria, things very well could have been a lot different.

Nonetheless, the one brand among the leading pack to defy the trend and leapfrog back into the frontrunners list was Isuzu. Courtesy of its new vehicles it is little wonder the brand is gaining traction down under, after all, Aussie motorists appreciate rugged and reliable utes and SUVs that come with a high value proposition.

Those just behind Isuzu such as Honda and Subaru also saw week-on-week growth in dealer connections, but they just missed out on making the upper echelon as relatively robust interest in the favourite brands ensured those companies held onto their places in our weekly rankings.

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