Weekly Dealer Car Enquiries: March 13, 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

Another positive week for new car enquiries lifts the number of dealer connections through the PriceMyCar platform sharply higher, reaching a total of 1,693 in the seven-day period ending March 13, 2022. This is 17.9% higher than the prior corresponding week, and a step in the right direction as far as momentum across the new car market.

It does help that brands like Toyota and Mitsubishi have recently received stock for popular vehicles - even though the former still has a long wait time as an average across its range - something that may have previously put a cap on the amount of interest flowing through. 

The Reserve Bank of Australia has also increasingly made it clear over recent weeks that rates are quite likely to march higher in 2022, which could be spurring interest while rates are still at rock-bottom levels.

The uptick in new car buying interest came despite the latest ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence index dropping 4.3 points to 95.8 during the second week of March. Compared with a year ago, the consumer confidence gauge is 15.1 points lower.

New car interest by brand

Kia surged into pole position as the most sought-after brand last week, with the volume of queries rising by 62 to a total of 229, one of the highest readings for the brand in some time. 

Mazda still managed to edge higher, and the brand is one of those with the shortest wait times across the market at the moment, in contrast with that of Kia. Mitsubishi also had a stellar week to take third, ahead of Hyundai and Subaru.

There weren’t too many car brands going backwards in terms of interest last week, in what is a positive sign that the low from a couple weeks ago may be behind us. 

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