Weekly Dealer Car Enquiries: October 23, 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

In what is the best result we’ve seen in a number of months, new car enquiries rocketed higher in the week ending Sunday, October 23, 2022. The total volume of inbound price requests grew 42.9% compared with the week prior, resulting in 2,141 connections.

You may have heard from us during the week around the fact that it appears the new car supply squeeze is starting to ease. For the first time in nearly two years, PriceMyCar data illustrated a monthly decline in the average waiting period for new cars, even though the delay still stands at 151 days.

However, it appears this news has resonated with a large cohort within our community, because we have not seen this number of dealer connections effectively since the early stages of 2021. 

New car buyers are still facing an uncertain economic outlook, underpinned by elevated inflation and rising interest rates, but if further progress is made in terms of reducing the wait time for a new car, we could very well see this level of interest sustained. Until that time, we expect some volatility will persist on a week-to-week basis, with the federal budget likely to only deliver limited support to households.

New car interest by brand

Interest in brands like Kia and Ford was back up around all-time highs thanks to the aforementioned news that supply chain bottlenecks are starting to ease a fraction. It was the magnitude of the increase in dealer connections that caught our attention, with queries in relation to both brands up by nearly 50% each versus the prior week.

Upbeat sentiment also filtered through to a number of other high profile auto brands, including Toyota, Mazda, Isuzu, Nissan, and M.G., among others. 

What’s interesting is that last week’s total of 2,141 leads was spread across just 37 brands, which is among the lower results we’ve seen when the overall market is seeing an increasing number of new entrants down under. 

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