Weekly Dealer Car Enquiries: October 3, 2021

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 witnessing momentum build over the last few weeks, there was a minor setback last week as new car enquiries eased from a multi-week high. In total, there were 1,458 dealer connections made in the week ending Sunday, October 3, a decline of 11.4% versus the week prior.

It’s not particularly easy to put a finger on the catalyst behind the result, however, we do note that sentiment is still rather patchy, even as an end to lockdowns emerge on the horizon. 

One potential factor that may have had an impact was news from the Australian federal government that it will begin winding down income support for those who have lost work amid the pandemic when vaccination levels hit 80%. Given this is likely to creep up on us rather quickly, potentially in October for residents across New South Wales, the sudden cut-off may be something weighing on the minds of uncertain new car buyers.

New car interest by brand

The leading quartet of Ford, Kia, Mazda and Isuzu from the week prior took a backwards step in the week ending Sunday, October 3, which was largely the driving force behind a pull-back in new car enquiries across all brands.

Hyundai and Mitsubishi were the only two major brands to see a resilient level of interest week-on-week, and in fact, the duo both eked out a small uptick in terms of the volume of queries coming through relating to their respective brands.

Whereas Subaru and Nissan took a backwards step, Volvo, while not one of the leading brands given its low-volume status, posted a strong result. The number of dealer connections for the Swedish brand increased by 67% against the prior corresponding period.

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