3 areas we continue to observe during the second quarter

There’s no denying that our previous insights for the second quarter (Q2) of 2018 focused on the hottest cars that have been launched, stirring consumer interest in the local automotive scene. These new cars – the Nissan Terra, the Toyota Rush, the Mistubishi Xpander – were some of the most inquired cars on AutoDeal, where the top selling cars for the quarter remained to showcase the consequential shift in need for crossovers and pickups over the midsize SUVs.

For the purpose of satisfying market curiosity, we pursued on identifying three key areas that would definitely influence future performance of brands and cars in the local industry, hence understanding these at this time would be significant and useful until year-end accounts come out.

Consumer Engagement

The overall automotive market may take comfort in consumer interest levels in Q2 which saw a 10.59% jump compared to the first quarter (Q1) of this year. Spurred by new product entries, dealers should anticipate increased sales opportunities throughout the third quarter (Q3) of 2018.

Total online car buying inquiries are up by 21% year on year, down by 1.65% from Q1 2018, based on the data gathered through AutoDeal inquiries (leads). Also, it is important to note that 61.13% of inquiries are driven from high quality sessions that originate from search engines’ queries. It’s an increase of 5.55% from Q1 2018, while 9.0% of inquiries come from users directly accessing the AutoDeal.com.ph website or revisiting from a browser bookmark. This is an increase of 2% form Q1 2018.

Product Preferences

Subcompact cars, light pickup trucks and compact crossovers continue to be the preferred purchases of choice as mid-size SUV numbers continue to struggle. Steadfast interest in the MPV/AUV market could help fuel growth in the year for new market products like the Toyota Rush and Mitsubishi Xpander.

The ratio of mid-size SUV to pickup or crossover sales continues to drop for a second consecutive quarter as the proportion of mid-size SUV sales on AutoDeal drops to an all-time low of 12.69%. In return, both the crossover and pickup markets continue to rally, with pickups now accounting for 21.29% of all AutoDeal Sales in Q2 and crossovers accounting for 20.08%. Subcompact sales also experienced a small decrease, dropping from 27.6% to 26.6%.

Purchase Urgency

In comparison to Q1, purchaseintent among Philippine car buyers is improving with more prospects targeting the completion of a purchase within the year. Likewise Q2 experienced a speed up in lead to sale conversion with the quarterly average dropping to just 43 days (7 days quicker than Q1) Despite such improvements, purchase urgency still remains significantly lower when compared to the same period in 2017.

Based further on AutoDeal’s data from Q2, it had been identified that buyer purchase intent is beginning to accelerate with the volume of consumers looking to buy within the 3 to 12 month period showing steady improvement. While those looking to buy within 0 to 3 month period is lower year-on-year, it is still important to acknowledge that, on average, 44.56% of online inquiries are looking to purchase within three months of their quote request. This not only represents the largest portion of buyers but, given the recent increases in lead volumes, it should provide dealers something to smile about by the time we get to the end of this year.