Weekly Dealer Car Enquiries: July 4, 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 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 4, dealer connections continued to slide as the lockdown situation across the country continued to weigh on industry activity. Across the week there were 1,542 enquiries relating to new cars, 14.5% fewer than the week prior.

With nearly half of the country’s population at one stage the subject of lockdown restrictions, new car buying interest has understandably fallen down the list of priorities for many. The situation in New South Wales remains of most concern, with the outbreak still causing concerns for officials and giving rise to the possibility of an extension for stay-at-home orders.

We will have a better clue by the middle of next week regarding what impact the restrictions have had on official readings for consumer confidence, although early forecasts suggest that sentiment will have pulled back from recent elevated levels. That would suggest a sharp departure from the above-forecast result for retail sales from May, when the consumer picture was better.

New car interest by brand

For the second week running, buying interest related to Kia vehicles remained robust, and it was actually one of the few brands to record a week-on-week increase in dealer connections. If concerns around lockdown restrictions continue to bite, Kia’s standing as a value-oriented brand may well prove to resonate more with new car buyers who face an uncertain outlook.

Subaru was one of the other brands to see a slight uptick in terms of interest. The auto-maker snuck into the top six most sought-after brands for the week, edging ahead of Volkswagen, Nissan and Hyundai, which all saw a pull-back in terms of leads.

New car buying interest in Honda has fallen to near all-time lows. That development comes as the brand transitioned to a fixed-price agency model from July 1, meaning motorists will no longer be able to negotiate the price of their next Honda vehicle.

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