Weekly Dealer Car Enquiries: September 18, 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

Despite the numerous headwinds at play, last week represented the best week for new car enquiries in some months, with the result eclipsing that we saw in mid August, with a total of 1,764 quote requests submitted through the PriceMyCar platform.

The jump is also one of the biggest week-on-week increases we have seen in a long time, with the total volume of price queries up 21.7% versus the week ending Sunday, September 11, 2022.

What is all the more remarkable is that these solid results continue to take place even though consumer sentiment is particularly weak at this stage, with five interest rate hikes in a row, and more to come over the following months.

Although lead times for deliveries are still at record highs, there is some positive rhetoric emerging from some of the more popular auto-makers, and in the case of companies like Toyota, they are now operating at record production levels in an effort to catch up.

New car interest by brand

Last week’s surge in new car buying interest came from almost every angle, with value-oriented brands, luxury marques, and just everything else in between delivering stronger numbers.

BMW and Mercedes-Benz delivered a solid week-over-week increase, as did its under-the-radar rival in Lexus.

But it was the mass-volume brands that made the most contribution to overall search queries jumping higher, with the likes of Ford, Hyundai, Kia, and Toyota all posting robust numbers. 

While electric vehicles have been a hot topic of late, with Tesla’s sales surging higher in August, we are yet to see any real interest on this front via PriceMyCar, which suggests some of the strong sales numbers out of the segment of late could be anomalies rather than an established trend.

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