Weekly Dealer Car Enquiries – Sunday May 3

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

New car quote requests in the week ending Sunday, May 3, totalled 746.

This was a significant jump from the week prior, where we recorded 577 leads. In percentage terms, this corresponded with a 29.3% increase.

This is one of the strongest signs we’ve seen thus far that an increasing number of prospective new car buyers appear to be returning to more ‘normal’ search activity. Overall leads are now around 15-20% below the levels recorded before the pandemic hit Australia.

Australia’s handling of the Coronavirus is likely to have helped improve sentiment, with the virus all but contained in most locations for the time being. Furthermore, an increasing number of states have begun lifting restrictions on the economy, prompting some confidence that we could be past the worst and that jobs may slowly begin to return.  

New car interest by brand

Underpinning the broader rise in enquiry across the market was an increase in the likes of Ford, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Nissan, Isuzu and Skoda.

Although Kia has shown robust interest among new car buyers’ right through the downturn, the amount of introductions slipped week-on-week, however, it still remains the fourth-most popular brand.

On the other hand, Ford, with 70 leads last week, was the brand that fared as well as any other last week considering only 42 leads were recorded the week prior. Given Holden’s stock is now starting to all but disappear from showrooms across the country, some buyers may naturally be shifting towards the blue oval brand.

Mazda also showed some resilience in terms of activity last week, even though its recent pricing adjustments have generally seen an increase in prices of its latest-release models.

Another observation was a return in strength to the ‘luxury’ segment, where Audi, BMW, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Volvo all saw strong growth in leads.

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