Large cars such as the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon dominated the market even as recently as five years ago when 24% of buyers intended a purchase.

Since then, however, small cars (particularly hatch backs) and SUVs have split the traditional large car market in two. Small cars now make almost 24% of the buying intentions and SUVs 23%. Buying intentions regarding large cars have collapsed to just 13.3% of the market.


New Car Buying Intention - Segments


Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia): 12 monthly moving average, July 2004 – June 2010. All new car intenders (next 4 years) n = 68,255 *Intention = next 4 years.


Norman Morris, Industry Communications Director, Roy Morgan Research, says:

“The rise of the small car and the SUV segments is now a decade old trend and is on an unstoppable path to replacing the traditional family sedan.

“With the Small Car Segment being the most intended passenger segment, it appears that the 4 door sedan is the most popular option. However it is equally important to note that Sedan preference has been in decline over the past five years.

“Understanding this shift from Sedan to Hatch is essential to brands such as Holden who are getting ready to launch the all new locally built Cruze 5 door Hatch, but are currently not in the preferred top three brands most intended by this key consumer group.

“If we take a closer look at the profile of 5 door Hatch intenders we can see that they are more likely to be female, live in a capital city, have a higher education and earn between $50 and $70K. Attitudinally, they prefer a car that has lots of sex appeal and will only buy a car that is fun to own.

“Roy Morgan Research have detailed profiles available on new car intenders that provide a broad understanding of the target group in terms of demographics, attitudes, activities and media usage.” 

Click here to purchase from a range of Roy Morgan Target Profiles available on New Car Intenders.
Profiles are available for make, model, and segments.

Click here to purchase a detailed Roy Morgan Automotive Currency Report.

This report looks at the Australian automotive industry, providing vital trended information on key market metrics, delivering a cost effective tool for measurement and evaluation of marketing effectiveness, brand performance and competitor performance.


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