Weekly Dealer Car Enquiries: January 24, 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, January 24, total dealer connections moved back towards the 2,000 mark, climbing 4.9% against the week prior. With most parts of the country now starting to loosen COVID restrictions once again, including the gradual lifting of border restrictions also, there may be some reason to believe this is attributable to the uptick in the number of new car enquiries coming through.

At the same time, last week also showcased that the economic rebound in Australia is faring considerably better than anyone could have anticipated. With 50,000 new jobs created in December, the unemployment rate dropped to 6.6%, while underemployment fell by 0.9% to 8.5%, a level roughly in line with before the pandemic.

These figures are providing a boost for sentiment as far as consumer spending, with CBA even expecting new car spending may be one of the primary beneficiaries.

New car interest by brand

As we’ve seen for some time, Kia continues to be one of the most favoured brands across the market by members of our community, with last week proving no exception. The number of inbound enquiries relating to the brand rose by 66 to 294, which itself was a record.

Meanwhile, Mazda leapfrogged Ford into second place thanks to a bumper week where the number of connections made through our platform grew by 29.6%.

Nonetheless, despite a positive week across the board for total enquiry numbers, some brands like Honda, Hyundai and Isuzu saw interest drop off by a modest amount. Given the general uptrend as far as queries with respect to these brands, the decrease could be seen as a temporary week-to-week fluctuation, but we won’t know for sure until the next fortnight’s worth of data comes through.

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