Weekly Dealer Car Enquiries: October 9, 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

A surge in new car buying interest last week helped take the total number of dealer connections to a total of 1,658, up more than 6% versus the prior week ending Sunday, October 2, 2022.

The increase came despite another rate hike from the Reserve Bank of Australia, however, in a somewhat positive outcome for borrowers, the rate hike ended up being less than what the market had anticipated. Australia’s central bank opted to hike rates by 25 basis points to 2.6%, whereas the market had been expecting an increase of 50 basis points. Nonetheless, the current cash rate is the highest level in nine years.

Last week’s result also defied the latest data from the weekly ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Index, which fell 0.9 points to 84.6. A year ago, the same index showed consumer confidence was 21 points higher. Around 45% of survey respondents say now is a ‘bad’ time to buy major household items, whereas just 24% say it is a ‘good’ time.

New car interest by brand

Ford’s run at the top of the list of the most sought after car brands didn’t last long, with Kia reclaiming its grip on the title of the hottest auto brand at this time. New car enquiries in relation to the brand were up nearly 18% last week, while its sister brand, Hyundai, went in the other direction, with interest easing fractionally. 

With Ford the only other brand in the top five to see positive growth last week, it was left to some other brands to do their part propping up the market, with the likes of Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, RAM, and Volkswagen all enjoying a solid week.

In total, 43 different car brands featured among searches by members of the PriceMyCar platform, which is right up there in terms of the highest amount of breadth we’ve seen in car preferences over recent months.

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