Every month at Prices People Pay, we analyse new data that our comprehensive used car price database has collected, to provide you the latest insights into the used car market. Here’s our summary for the month of March.
Top Sellers
The first 2 weeks of March saw increasing sales for the year in all segments.
However, as the Coronavirus pandemic spread across Australia and social distancing measures were put in place we recorded a drop in sales activity for the end of March.
Demand has reduced with buyers reluctant to transact and sellers have also tightened release of stock to protect returns
With federal and state governments announcing the current measures may stay in place for several months we expect subdued sales activity to continue for at least the next quarter.
With buyer activity now in a depressed state, mainstay vehicles are seeing the most activity in the market. The Camry, Ranger and Hilux are selling far more easily in the market largely to their common use within trade industries.
As we head into the remainder of the year we are likely to see price reductions which will bring more balance to the market.
Sales of less common makes and models are struggling to find traction in current market conditions.
Comparing to last month
As expected we’ve seen significant reductions this month due to the Coronavirus pandemic. All segments have been affected however the light commercial segment has held up remarkably well in comparison. This is largely due to their importance to trade industries and essential services that still need to run despite social distancing measures being in place.
SUV’s took the brunt of the decline as buyers trended towards cheaper, older passenger cars as an alternative.
As we head into April we expect further reductions in supply as well as transactions overall due to tightening conditions in consumer spending and lending.
Looking at individual models, there really hasn’t been any winners. The Isuzu D-max bucked the downward trend but we see this as a once off.
SUV’s such as the Rav4 and Kluger saw the most decline in the market as buyers moved towards smaller, cheaper passenger cars.
Coupled with the Easter long weekend, as we head into April we expect further decline.
Comparing to last year
Year-on-year we’ve seen significant decline across the board.
The past few months we saw SUV sales fare well due to their high demand but even this segment saw declines in March versus last year.
Traditionally, April is a slower month due to a number of public holidays in the larger states around the country. Coupled with the Coronavirus pandemic we expect substantial decline in activity in the market place in April.
It’s a similar story looking at individual makes as no brand came out a winner. Even though the Nissan Qashqai bucked the trend we see this as a once off for the month.
Even though some of the large volume sellers look to have seen the most decline, on a percentage basis they are faring better than some of the more niche and uncommon brands.
For the remainder of the year we expect most of the focus to be on mainstay vehicles like the Ranger, Hilux, Camry as well as small hatchbacks. We expect buyer activity from essential services as well as greater interest in smaller, cheaper vehicles to direct demand towards these areas of the market most.
Data Source
Prices People Pay sources data exclusively from Datium Insights. Feel free to check out their products and services page for more info.
