The intentions of Australians to buy new cars have dipped again, but not to the depths of late last year.

The Roy Morgan automotive leading indicators for March 2009 show 3.4% (557,000) of people 18 years and older (excluding fleet, government and rental buyers) intend to buy a new car in the next 12 months.

This is down marginally on the February 2009 figure of 3.5% (572,000) but up from the five year low of 3.0% (486,000 people) recorded in December 2008.

The number of Australians intending to buy a new car in the next four years is 12.1% (1,987,000). This is the strongest result since October 2008 yet well below the recent high of 14.1% recorded in July. 2008.

Norman Morris, industry communications director for Roy Morgan Research, says the results are promising.

“While intention to purchase a new car in the next 12 months has fallen marginally, it is promising to note intention to purchase a new car in the next four years has increased to the highest level since the weak results of late 2008 and early 2009,” Morris says.

“Low levels of new car buying intention are consistent with the drop in Roy Morgan consumer confidence rating which has spent the first three months of 2009 well below the corresponding monthly figures recorded in 2008, suggesting no short term sign of a recovery in new car sales volume.”

Source: Autofile