Weekly Dealer Car Enquiries: Sunday August 2

In this series, which we hope to bring to you on a regular basis, 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 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 the week ending Sunday, August 2, there was a 23.3% reduction in the number of new car enquiries made via PriceMyCar. This translated into a total of 695 dealer connections.

While there was some optimism the prior week as a result of additional clarity on fiscal support for job-affected workers, this was overshadowed by the news that stage four lockdown measures would be implemented in Melbourne. Furthermore, the gradual spread of COVID cases beyond the Victorian border has also weighed on new car buying sentiment in other regions.

In Melbourne, however, the tightening of restrictions stands to all but quash car sales, with automotive operations and premises closed for on-site work.

New car interest by brand

There were sharp reductions in dealer connections for most brands last week as the economic repercussions of the recession began to bite.

Kia fell from the perch as the most popular brand to the second-most popular make, with Mazda edging ahead by default on account of a smaller reduction in new car enquiries for the Japanese brand.

While Mercedes-Benz and Isuzu are among the lower-volume brands that we see motorists enquiring about, both managed to record a fairly steady week in terms of interest, thus bucking the trend.

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