Price My Car is becoming CarExpert. Learn more here.

Weekly Dealer Car Enquiries: January 16, 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

After a promising build-up over recent weeks, the number of new car enquiries recorded via the PriceMyCar platform made an abrupt u-turn last week, with momentum flipping on its head. Whereas the seven-day period ending Sunday, January 9 saw 1,449 dealer connections take place, the most-recent period, ending Sunday, January 16, led to just 1,330 new car enquiries taking place. That represents a week-on-week decline of 8%.

There wasn’t much to attribute to last week’s pull-back, however, it should be noted that the majority of the decline came on the back of a fall in interest for two of the nation’s most-popular car brands. That in itself suggests it could be just a blip rather than a worrying sign, particularly as the week started on strong footing with Monday seeing almost 250 leads alone.

More broadly, however, consumer sentiment is still likely to remain in a rut given the spread of the Omicron variant has caused havoc for businesses, employees and shoppers alike. Many businesses have spoken about what has effectively been a ‘shadow lockdown’ amid widespread isolation orders, not to mention consumers opting to avoid risk by staying at home.

Screenshot 2022-01-17 4.09.25 PM

New car interest by brand

As alluded to earlier, it was a slump in interest for the likes of Mazda and Hyundai, which ultimately swayed the broader activity for dealer connections across the market. The former saw an 18.8% drop in queries come through, while Hyundai was ousted from the top five.

Elsewhere, other leading brands maintained a relatively steady footing, with Ford, Kia and Subaru all recording a similar amount of leads as the week prior. In some cases, as was the outcome for Isuzu, which entered the top five in place of Hyundai, and Japanese auto-maker Mitsubishi, these brands were even able to build on their positive momentum of late and extend their positive growth.

After last week’s slip-up, MG and RAM turned things around, although that came at the expense of former favourite and household name Honda, which has seen its fortunes change drastically since it made the conversion to a fixed-price agency model.

 

Prospective New
Car Buyer Numbers               

Jan 10 – Jan 16   

Jan 3 – Jan 9   

% Change in
Enquiries

Mazda

147

181

-18.8%

Kia

146

150

-2.7%

Mitsubishi

127

115

10.4%

Isuzu

117

104

12.5%

Subaru

106

106

0.0%

 

To get FREE access to instant pricing on just about every new car make and model, plus guaranteed discounts, sign up today

 

Pricing Request Submitted

One of our accredited dealers will be in touch shortly to discuss specific exclusive discounts available on this car. At no cost, nor obligation.

Request Pricing

[Form]

Pricing Request Submitted

[Form]

Confirm

Redirecting...

Redirecting

Oh No! An Error Occured

Sorry it looks like something we didnt expect occured. You can refresh the page and try again. If you are haveing problems you can submit our contact form or give us a call on (02) 8330 6625

You can provide us this request id to help us track down the problem: