More Australians Shelving Plans to Buy New Cars

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After reaching for record sales levels all year, a new report sees a softening ahead for the Australian new-vehicle market.

Roy Morgan Research shows the number of Australians who intend to buy a new car within the next 12 months fell to 563,000 in the third quarter from prior-year’s 590,000, after rising throughout first-half 2016.

The company says the findings point to the undoing of nearly all the steady growth in near-term new-car purchase intentions throughout the first half of the year.

Overall intention to buy a new car within the next four years also eased from its July peak, although it remains in positive territory year-on-year with 2.27 million Australians planning to buy a new car.

Jordan Pakes, director-automotive industry for Roy Morgan Research, says Toyota leads the way in the next 12 months with 117,000 potential private buyers considering a new Toyota, down from 138,000 a year earlier.

Among other volume brands, the biggest mover over the past year has been Honda, up to 41,000 from 31,000 in October 2015.

“This is good news for Honda,” Pakes says in a statement. “Despite marginally softer sales this year to date, a strong 2017 is in the cards.

“The SUV boom looks likely to continue in 2017, with 225,000 people intending to purchase a high-riding alternative. Passenger-car purchase intention declined over much of 2016 and now sits below the total SUV category.”

Pakes says much of this is the result of decreased intentions to buy small cars such as the Mazda3 and Toyota Corolla, potential casualties of Australians’ increasing appetite for SUVs, particularly the smaller variants.