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
After a bumper fortnight of activity, the new car market took a breather last week as dealer connections moderated slightly. In total there were 1,734 new car enquiries through the PriceMyCar platform leading up to Sunday, May 29, which represents a 4.9% decline versus the week prior.
In the same week last year, dealer connections reached 2,037, so while there is still some distance between the two results, it has narrowed from a few weeks ago when the latest data was showing inbound new car queries were sitting at around half the level from a year ago.
If we go a little further back to the same week in May, 2020, the result back then was 1,356 new car enquiries. Keep in mind, the nation was in the early throes of the pandemic and lockdowns, so this result was somewhat subdued by various concerns.
New car interest by brand
Three fewer brands were on the radars of Australian new car buyers last week, with a total of 36 marques on the watchlists of Australian motorists. Those on the outer last week were Citroen, IVECO and Mahindra, which didn’t register a quote request.
The frontrunners in Kia, Mazda and Ford recorded a modest decrease in interest, which was what ultimately weighed on the broader market. Nonetheless, the top five most sought-after brands accounted for 50% of all leads in the seven-day period ending May 29, 2022.
On the other hand, Mitsubishi and Subaru both led the positive stories from last week, with each brand picking up a small additional number of queries, and M.G. had a particularly good week, with an extra 22 enquiries related to the brand. M.G. is in the midst of a stellar run, with April seeing a second vehicle from the M.G. join the top 20 best-selling models across Australia.
|
Prospective New Car Buyer Numbers |
May 23 – May 29 |
May 16 – May 22 |
% Change in Enquiries |
|
265 |
309 |
-14.2% |
|
|
199 |
209 |
-4.8% |
|
|
146 |
142 |
2.8% |
|
|
135 |
155 |
-12.9% |
|
|
122 |
140 |
-12.9% |
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