Weekly Dealer Car Enquiries: March 28, 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 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, March 28, there were 2,074 new car enquiries made through PriceMyCar. For some weeks now, we have seen the total number of dealer connections slip continuously, with last week’s drop proving to be among the larger ones, even though it is still relatively modest in its own right.

It’s hard to gauge what exactly has been stifling recent interest, although as we pointed out the week prior, it may well be a case of caution ahead of the end of JobKeeper. With COVID still sporadically popping up here and there, and leading to a snap lockdown at the start of this week in Greater Brisbane, there are still some headwinds prevailing that will keep a lid on the new car industry.

New car interest by brand

For the second week running, Mazda took out top position as the most sought-after car across our platform. The number of enquiries did drop, however, easing from 274 to 244. 

That drop was not replicated by all of the leading car-makers, with Mitsubishi and Ford bucking the weekly decline to post their own respective increases. 

In the case of Mitsubishi, the brand actually leapfrogged Kia into second place, with customer leads rising from 210 to 237 week-on-week. With interest in Kia gently decreasing, it marked the first time in months that the Korean brand was not first or second in terms of new car enquiries. In fact, it is now sitting only fractionally ahead of Ford.

Beyond the top four, there was otherwise a general decline in just about every other popular car brand on the market, regardless whether oriented towards the budget or luxury segments.

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