Online marketplace CarExpert.com.au believes the current buyers’ market will continue in 2025 as intenders expand their consideration sets to include more cars.
It reports that most new car intenders (57%) consider three or more vehicles—up 12% from last year—and buyers spend between three and four months researching their purchase decision.
Receptiveness to Electric Vehicles (EVs) has declined year over year, according to CarExpert.
Nearly one in six buyers now say they are closed to the possibility of an EV as their next vehicle, compared to only one in eight last year. EV knowledge is growing but still needs to improve, with 65% of new car buyers and intenders declaring only a vague understanding of the differences between various modes of electrification.
These findings are from CarExpert’s annual Road to Purchase: An Overview of the Australian New Car Buyer research, conducted independently via Nielsen and with a nationally representative sample of more than 1000 car buyers and intenders.
An update to the annual Road to Purchase research will be released on November 28 at a live-streamed industry event. The event will also mark the launch of a new insights division, CarExpert IQ.
Attendees will have first access to fresh insights via an in-depth look at how buyer behaviours, perceptions, brand consideration and other habits have evolved.
Expert perspectives will be added from an industry panel headlined by Australian Automotive Dealer Association (AADA) chief executive James Voortman, with research agency Nielsen presenting the essential findings and headlines.
CarExpert chief executive Damon Rielly noted that the industry lacked a partner who could provide consumer-led insights regularly, particularly at the top of the funnel.
“We believe these insights are more critical than ever as the number of car brands swells to 60-plus despite stagnating new car sales. Our launch event will feature the most up-to-date overview of Australian new car buyers in the market and is a must-see for anyone in the automotive industry,” says Rielly.
“There isn’t anyone else with the same breadth of content to reach and engage new car intenders. Where other platforms may have a lot of transactional touchpoints, they lack the upper-funnel content that can provide valuable insights into how consumers inform their purchase decision and what they find important,” he says.
CarExpert IQ will draw signals from the CarExpert website, social media handles, YouTube and its content syndication network, which includes 7News, MSN, Apple News, The Nightly and more than 90 other sites, including Australian Community Mastheads such as The Canberra Times.
The company expects strong representation across the automotive industry at its November 28 launch event.
“We now partner with hundreds of new car dealers and almost every new car brand. The appetite for an independent, in-depth look at buyer behaviours has blown us away. We look forward to presenting fresh insights in partnership with Nielsen on November 28,” says founder Alborz Fallah.
“We want to be the automotive partner of choice that makes buying the right new car quicker and easier, so we feel CarExpert IQ is launching at the perfect time.”
The launch event is by registration only for professionals in the automotive sector.
Event details:
Time: 3-4 pm (AEDT)
Date: Thursday, 28th November
Medium: Virtual stream (video)
Register: iq.carexpert.com.au
