Surprises in April new car enquiries

The latest data from the Carsales network contains some surprising facts on how sales to private buyers in the new car market are travelling. As the Carsales enquiries generally reflect individual buyers rather than fleet or government buyers, they provide a good picture of how average Australians are thinking.

That said, there are some expected outcomes too.

For example, Toyota topped the list of brand enquiries for April. But the surprise there is the Toyota most people wanted to know about: As it happens it was not Corolla, or Camry, but the HiLux range -- saying something about where much of the strength in today's market actually lies.

The strength of LCVs in the marketplace is supported by Nissan's Navara rating as the second-most enquired about model (the Toyota HiLux rated, in terms of individual model popularity across the industry, third behind Navara), and Mitsubishi's Triton edging into the top ten. Holden's Colorado is also riding the LCV wave in 11th place, way up from 34th place in March. As for the Colorado, the facelifted Ford Ranger, unveiled in February this year, also rated outside the top ten.

Back to manufacturer enquiry ratings: Second behind Toyota was, maybe equally unsurprisingly, Mazda, while Ford moved up on the back of strong interest in Fiesta to third spot, ahead of Nissan.

The data shows the Holden brand now down in fifth place, while Volkswagen, with no individual model rating in the top ten, is in sixth spot ahead of Honda -- also without any individual top ten models. Honda has suffered a big plunge to seventh, followed by Hyundai, Subaru and, in 10th place, Mitsubishi.

In terms of individual models, the most enquired about new car remains the Mazda3 (pictured), ahead of Navara and HiLux, with Subaru's Impreza moving up into fourth spot. Corolla is in there, a couple of spots below HiLux in fifth position, while the Hyundai Getz is attracting new buyer interest and has moved up from 15th place to sixth.

Ford's Fiesta is the Blue Oval's most popular model enquiry and rates in seventh place, while Hyundai's i30 moved from 14th place in March to eighth place in April.

With its "3" model on top rating, Mazda has two vehicles in the individual top ten, although the Mazda2 is hanging on by the skin of its teeth in ninth spot after rating as the third most popular enquiry in March.

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