Weekly Dealer Car Enquiries: July 17, 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

Last week’s total volume of search queries made through the PriceMyCar platform was down by 9.9%, resulting in a total of 1,272 dealer connections. In the week prior, ending Sunday, July 10, 2022, there were 1,411 new car enquiries.

In the same week last year there were 1,406 quote requests for new cars, which is well above the most-recent result, but broadly in line with some of the week-to-week variances we have seen of late. 

Since that time, however, the official unemployment rate has improved from 4.9% to last week’s surprisingly robust reading of 3.5%, which is a multi-decade high. Although the situation across the jobs market has improved markedly, the fact that interest rates have climbed from 0.1% to 1.35% in that time, and are set to continue increasing, is a major headwind for new car buying sentiment. 

New car interest by brand

Mitsubishi was the only frontrunner brand to maintain the same level of buying interest as the week prior, with a 0.9% increase in dealer connections enough to see it land in second place as the most sought-after car brand last week.

On the other hand, Kia and Ford both recorded a mid-to-high single-digit slump in quote requests, although the gap between Kia and the rest of the field remains as imposing as we have witnessed for some time now. The slump for Hyundai and Mazda was a little more pronounced, with declines in each brand slipping over into double-digit territory. 

Outside of the top five, interest in Isuzu saw a sharp pull-back, as did BMW, falling to one of its lowest results in months. Faring much better were the likes of M.G, Nissan, Subaru, and Toyota, which each saw an uptick in terms of new car buying interest.  

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