Weekly Dealer Car Enquiries: July 24, 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

In the week ending Sunday, July 24, 2022, new car enquiries made via the PriceMyCar platform remained relatively in line with the week prior, totalling 1,221.

The result continues to highlight the headwinds and lack of momentum facing the broader industry at the moment, with consumers conscious about the rising cost of living, as well as expectations that interest rates will continue to increase at a rate of knots over the coming months. Already to date, household buying intentions are at their weakest level in months, signalling a point of concern ahead. 

Also at the same time, there are growing concerns about the state of the economy, with inflation running away from the government, and the current round of rate hikes expected to flatten economic growth and potentially put pressure on the multi-decade low in the unemployment rate.

New car interest by brand

Ford was the biggest mover among the leading brands last week, with interest in the blue oval brand up nearly one-fifth after a brief lull over the last month or so. Nonetheless, overall queries relating to the brand are still sitting near lows, highlighting the broader pull-back across the market.

Mazda also had a promising week, managing to edge higher thanks to a 6% increase in overall new car buying interest. That was at odds with the rest of the leaders in the top five - Kia, Hyundai, and Mitsubishi - which all recorded a modest decline in the week ending Sunday, July 24, 2022.

We’ve also seen a decrease in the overall number of brands appearing on shoppers’ watchlists, with just 40 makes of car coming up in search results this week, down from 42 in the preceding week.

Elsewhere, BMW volume bounced back strongly after one of its weakest results on record, while Jeep and Volvo also had promising weeks, albeit budget brand M.G. was on the receiving end of a shift in buying interest towards more premium names.

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