Who's on the shortlist when the out-of-office goes on?

Summer is when Australian car buyers build their shortlists. See how holiday browsing turns into March deliveries and how brands can stay in market.

Picture this: the cricket is on, lunch is still in the fridge and someone on a camp chair at a caravan park is scrolling carsales on their phone. For the first time in months, they have the headspace to think about the car they've been putting off. Maybe a ute that can tow the van they hired this year. Maybe something bigger now the kids have outgrown the hatch.

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They're far from alone. Last summer, an average of 631,000 people visited carsales every day across December and January, when most marketing teams were still on leave.¹ Nearly two in three of these buyers don't visit any other major auto site at all.²

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And they're browsing from wherever the holidays take them. In January, 77% of carsales traffic came from a mobile device, much of it through the app.³ With work on pause, they lingered longer too, spending 14% more time on carsales over summer.⁴That makes mobile-first creative particularly important over summer, with native, in-feed and video formats designed for the carsales app and mobile site.

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Summer browsing builds the March peak

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The clearest signal arrives once Christmas is over. The day after Boxing Day, enquiries on carsales jumped 48% and kept climbing until mid-January.⁵ It’s also a key window for BVOD and paid social, using carsales first-party audiences to connect summer sport activity with people actively shopping for their next car.

Many of those enquiries turn into deals. March has been Australia's second biggest delivery month two years running,⁶ and with around a month between choosing a car and driving it home,⁷ those March vehicles were largely decided in January and February.

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Better still for brands, those decisions are wide open. Australia's Car Buyer Report 2026 from carsales found buyers take six months to land on the exact car, and nearly two thirds double back along the way.⁷ Loyalty is up for grabs too, with more than three quarters of buyers likely to switch brands or unsure they'll stay with their current manufacturer.⁸ Brands that stay visible while the shortlist is being written are the ones buyers weigh up.

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Summer creates buyers of its own too. The boatsales audience nearly doubled in December, caravancampingsales peaked in January, leading to light commercial vehicle enquiries on carsales rising by 22% as buyers look for something to tow with.⁹

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Staying in market doesn't mean staying at your desk

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Most of what keeps a brand present over summer gets decided before anyone leaves. Plan early, secure the moments that matter and let the activity do its job while your team switches off.

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That could mean locking in homepage dates around the post-Christmas rebound and the busy first fortnight of January. Historically, homepage takeovers have lifted clients' model search share by an average of 39%.¹⁰

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Plan your summer before you break

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The carsales mediahouse team can help you build a summer plan that keeps working while your team is away. Book a summer planning session with your Client Partner this month, so your brand is in the conversation post-Christmas and still on the shortlist when March deals are signed.

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^Sources

^{1 carsales internal data (Google Analytics), daily users, 1 December 2025 to 31 January 2026.}

^{2 Ipsos iris, June 2026, Australians aged 14+. Sites measured: carsales, CarsGuide, CarExpert, Drive and WhichCar.}

^{3 carsales internal data (carsales Solutions Toolkit), traffic by device, January 2026.}

^{4 carsales internal data (Google Analytics), average time on site, December 2024 to January 2025 compared with September to November 2024.}

^{5 carsales internal data, daily enquiries, 1 December 2025 to 31 January 2026.}

^{6 VFACTS (FCAI), new vehicle deliveries, January 2025 to September 2026.}

^{7 carsales, Australia's Car Buyer Report 2026, independent research by Nature, n=2,008.}

^{8 carsales Brand Loyalty Survey, August 2026, n=1,231.}

^{9 carsales internal data (Google Analytics), monthly users for boatsales and caravancampingsales, November 2025 to January 2026; carsales enquiries by segment, December 2025 compared with January 2026.}

^{10 carsales internal data (Google Analytics), home page takeover results, April to June 2024.}

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