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, October 25, a total of 1,700 dealer connections took place across the PriceMyCar platform. This was a minor uptick from the week prior, where we witnessed 1,688 new car enquiries come through.
The fact that the figures have now been able to somewhat stabilise at these higher levels paints a positive picture for the industry, even if monthly sales numbers are expected to continue to falter against last year’s numbers.
Across seven straight weeks now consumer confidence has increased, which is an encouraging sign for dealers who will be keen to make deals with prospective new car buyers.
New car interest by brand
Kia and Ford both managed to build on their recent momentum, with dealer connections for both brands increasing week-on-week yet again. In the case of Kia, there were 240 new car enquiries last week, while for Ford there were 161.
As far as activity among other makes, there were few variances across the popular brands, although some easing as far as Mazda and Nissan. Nonetheless, modest activity elsewhere also meant that Toyota remained uncharacteristically well down the list, with only 22 enquiries flowing through last week. It comes after there were just 16 enquiries relating to the nation’s best-selling manufacturer the week prior.
Prospective New Car Buyer Numbers |
Oct 19 – Oct 25 |
Oct 12 – Oct 18 |
% Change in Enquiries |
240 |
209 |
14.8% |
|
184 |
161 |
14.3% |
|
172 |
170 |
1.2% |
|
144 |
134 |
7.5% |
|
141 |
126 |
11.9% |
|
113 |
114 |
-0.9% |
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