Good time to buy a car

While consumer confidence generally remains low, the Roy Morgan Leading Indicators Report for July shows a strong intention to buy new vehicles.

Roy Morgan Research industry communications director Norman Morris says about 637,000 Australians intend to buy a new vehicle in the next 12 months, up on the short-term average of 611,000.

"Although Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence has remained relatively low over the recent months, there is still a majority of the population who believe that it is a good time for purchasing major household items and motor vehicles are possibly a beneficiary of this optimism over the next 12 months," he says.

"The RBA's recent decision to leave the cash rate unchanged, placing no extra mortgage pressure on the 39.6 per cent of new car shoppers who are currently paying off their home, is also contributing positively to car buying intentions."

In the longer term, about 2,069,000 Australians intend to buy a new car in the next four years, excluding fleet, government and rental buyers, he says.

These figures also show that almost one in five (17.8 per cent) intend to buy a Toyota over the next four years, ahead of Holden (11.4 per cent) and Ford (7.9 per cent).

Intentions to buy a new car in the next 12 months have increased most in the past year for Nissan (up 1.4 percentage points to 4.4 per cent) and Volkswagen and Lexus (both up 0.6 of a point to 5.6 and 1.3 per cent respectively).

The decline in short-term buyer intentions has hit Toyota the hardest (down 1.8 points to 17.8 per cent), followed by Mazda (down 1.5 points to 7.3 per cent) and Mitsubishi (down 1.2 points to 3.6 per cent).

However, compared with the latest VFACTS market share data - which includes fleet, government and rental - the biggest improvers could be Volkswagen (up from 8th to 5th) and Honda (10th to 5th), while those with the most to lose could be Hyundai (5th to 9th) and Mitsubishi (7th to 10th).

There will also be a swing towards SUVs and commercial vehicles, according to Roy Morgan Research.

Buying intentions for passengers vehicles have fallen 3.7 points in the past two years to 56.4 per cent while SUVs are up from 20.4 per cent to 24.7 per cent and commercial vehicles are up from 6.1 per cent to 6.9 per cent.

Buyer intentions

 Source: Roy Morgan/VFACTS