What happened with New Cars during Q2
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Most Popular Car Brands and Models in the GCC - Q2 2018
By the end of Q1 2018, I wrote an article regarding the most popular new car searches for the GCC leveraging from YallaMotor's extensive audience (read here). Now, with Q2 figures out let us see how the market changed.
The below is a summary based on YallaMotor's Q2 automotive audience for all the GCC where we did 4,968,755 sessions and 21,857,085 page views. The accumulated so far (Q1+Q2) is a total of 9,230,628 sessions and 41,401,543 page views.
Introducing In-Market Segments
I would like to start this Q2 report by introducing In-Market Segments. Something I encourage everyone involved in the automotive industry to start asking for. In a nutshell, In-Market Segments is an interesting functionality that comes from Google Analytics. This tells us how many users, out of the total number, we have under a specific industry. For us, of course, it is the Auto & Vehicles segment/category.
Going a bit deeper on the definition means how many car buyers are browsing YallaMotor (or any other website) and are next to purchasing a car. Moreover, this gives us relevant information per sub-segment, for example:
- How many of those car buyers will be buying Toyotas, Nissans, Hyundais, etc.
- How many of them are in the market for SUVs, New Cars, Used Cars, Sedans, Luxury Cars, and so on.
Out of the total YallaMotor audience, approximately 30% of the users are in the market for buying a car. Does this mean the remaining 70% will not buy? No, it does not. Basically means they are not that close to doing it or, in other words, they are not on the last stage of the funnel. As per Cox Automotive, a car buyer spends 108 days to purchase a car, whether it's new or used. This will mean that those 30% will be buying in the next 30-ish days.
Market Preferences and Trends
As we can see in the below chart, the In-Market segment shows how the market operates and which are their preferences. Below we can see the top 5 in-market segments for the car buyers:
- Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs)
- Sedans
- Used Cars
- New Cars
- Luxury Cars
While there is a clear trend for the Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs), Sedans still seem to be more searchable and popular than SUVs. In addition, the last quarter has seen more interest in Used Cars rather than New Cars; which we might take as a sign since Ramadan fell during the same quarter. The other highlight is how Toyota is part of the top 5 in-market segments for cars. In the last 3 months, there were literally 237,395 users seriously searching and eventually buying Toyota cars in the GCC and Egypt.
Most Popular New Car Brands in the GCC - Q2
When it comes to the most popular new car brands in the region there is no big surprise at first sight. However, there are some brands that have been outranked by others if we compare it with Q1 2018. For instance, during Q1 2018, Hyundai was the second most popular followed -very closely- by Nissan. Now, during Q2, Nissan felt the heat and outranked Hyundai from the second position. In all cases, I must say there is no huge difference. It will be interesting to see how they will end the year.
On this top 10, it is exciting to see how other brands besides Toyota can easily outrank each other since it is very tight.
Most Popular New Car Models in the GCC - Q2
Out of 10 models, Toyota puts 6 on the list. It starts with the Toyota Land Cruiser followed by the recently launched Toyota Camry. It is interesting to analyze the fact that during the first quarter, the Patrol was second, and in quarter two has been outranked by the Camry. We can easily assume this shift was due to the launch of the Camry earlier in Q2. Additionally, it is also interesting to see how the Accord, which had been launched nearly at the same time, couldn't make it into this top 10.
Let Us Talk Chinese?
These brands lack a lot of attention from the media, to be honest (maybe because they are not "sexy" and they have a limited budget?). In my opinion, they deserve some recognition because they are creating an impact. They are responsible for producing millions of cars every year while offering tons of features for "half the price," and providing a lot more warranty (up to 10 years and unlimited kilometers warranty) than more established brands.
The top 10 Chinese brands managed to garner a good 500,000+ page views last quarter, and MG outranked Geely from the first position by adding 100,000 more page views than the quarter before. It's clear that the relaunch of the brand helped. Will they be able to maintain it though?
Editor's Pick:
- Which are the most popular NEW CARS by online searches in the region?
- Are we really connecting with online buyers? UAE, KSA and Kuwait auto shopper habits revealed
