Weekly Dealer Car Enquiries: July 3, 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

Continuing the recent bout of volatility we’ve witnessed across the PriceMyCar platform, there was a 19.3% drop in new car enquiries last week, which resulted in a total of 1,294 dealer connections taking place.

It has become increasingly difficult to get a proper gauge on the state of the new car market, with dealers reporting robust demand, but sales telling a different story as stock shortages weigh on monthly figures. At the same time, new car enquiries continue to waver, with consumer sentiment in the doldrums amid the rising cost of living, early signs of a slowdown in the property market, and a series of expected rate hikes to follow. 

With lenders also moving on fixed-rate mortgages before any official interest rate hikes have been announced, consumers are facing a tough time at the moment with regards to the confidence to make large household purchases.

New car interest by brand

With such a large drop in new car buying enquiries across the week, it was inevitable that interest in some of the frontrunner brands would moderate from the recent jump.

Of course, with Kia and Mazda the two most sought after brands on a running basis, these were also the vehicles caught in the crosshairs last month, with interest in the duo slumping 17% and 27.7% versus the week prior.

The story wasn’t much better for the other names in the top five, with Mitsubishi leads down 14.4% week-on-week, Ford enquiries slumping by one-third, and Hyundai quotes faring slightly better but still 6.1% lower than the prior corresponding week. Thanks to the relatively modest decline in price requests for Hyundai vehicles, Nissan was bumped out of the top five.

On the other end of the spectrum, Isuzu put in arguably the best showing last week, managing to eke out a minor gain, but a welcome one given the state of the broader picture.

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