Carsales has claimed it is the only platform that can take a car consumer throughout the whole journey to a bonafide sale.
Instead of being the platform where car buyers can research, find and connect to sellers, it now allows consumers to financially commit to a sale—whether it’s a new car order or a second hand deal—with a few clicks.
And helping car manufacturers and dealers connect to consumers throughout that journey is Carsales new AI-powered intelligence answer machine, Iggy.
Residing within Carsales’ Ignition platform, the self-serve advertising and campaign management platform brings together specialised AI agents across audiences, inventory, competitors, campaigns, measurement and creative insights.
It uses natural language that allows marketers to ask practical business questions, identify opportunities and move quickly from insight to action without navigating multiple tools, models or data sources.
Iggy draws on more than 16 million logged-in members, 3 billion automotive shopping signals each quarter, VIN-level inventory data and transaction signals to help marketers better understand buyer behaviour and purchase intent.
“The industry doesn’t have a data problem, it has a connection problem. Marketers have access to more data than ever before but limited visibility into what’s actually influencing purchase decisions,” GM of media product and technology Stephen Kyefulumya, said at Carsales’ Open House event in Sydney this week.
“The industry doesn’t have a data problem, it has a connection problem. Marketers have access to more data than ever before but limited visibility into what’s actually influencing purchase decisions.
“With Iggy, we’re using agentic AI on Australia’s largest automotive data set, delivering automation with intelligence to help brands connect marketing activity to real commercial outcomes.”
A highly competitive car market
With 79 brands competing for Australian car buyers, and 54 models on sale that didn’t exist a year ago, the automotive landscape and path to purchase is becoming increasingly complicated. Chinese manufacturers are flooding the market with EV models being launched every other week.
Carsales is trying to simplify and streamline the process by introducing new AI-assisted shopping experiences, retail capabilities, audience intelligence and attribution and Iggy.
“More brands are competing for Australian car buyers than ever before, and consumers are less loyal than we’ve ever measured,” Carsales GM of advertising Nicholas Bailly said.
“Every one of those purchase decisions gets made somewhere. Our commitment is to help automotive brands influence those decisions in the place people already trust to find their next car.”
Carsales Open House ’27 showcased how a future retail experience on how it could help consumers discover vehicles tailored to their needs, while giving OEMs and dealer networks more ways to engage buyers at the right points of their purchase journey.
Ollie Nugent, head of consumer product at Carsales, said: “We see an opportunity to bring more of the new car journey together, from research and comparison through to decision-making and the ability to place an order, all in one connected journey that closes the loop.
“It’s about giving consumers choice in how far they want to take the journey on Carsales, whether that’s researching, enquiring, booking a test drive, or even progressing through to placing an order.
“For dealers, this could create further opportunities to connect with more informed, purchase-ready buyers. For OEMs, it opens up the potential for a new retail channel that brings them even closer to consumers as they move towards a decision.”
Carsales is also revving up its branded content game.
In the past year it ran video content series Out There, Idle Talk and Fuel for Thought, which have notched up 1.39 million watch minutes since March, with 70 per cent on connected TV.
Next year, Carsales is launching three new shows, Beyond the Map, Machines of the Land and Inside the Helmet.
‘We’re Back In The Pits Again’
Westpac senior economist Matthew Hassan provided the room with an economic outlook to open the event.
His entertaining fireside presentation with host Lizzy Hoo was forthright but upbeat.
“In terms of whether we’re in pole position or in the pits—obviously, we’re back in the pits as far as the economy goes for a little while.
“Coming out of COVID, we had supply chain disruptions and quite a bad bout of inflation. Things seem to be coming right in 2025, we got the green flag, rates came down a bit, and we started to take off again.
“But we have maybe had an oil spill early this year, another flare up, and we’re back in the pits, getting sorted before we can really get going again.”
The oil spill Hassan refers to is the US/Israeli war with Iran, which has sent fuel prices skyrocketing and exacerbated a cost of living crisis that had already been set on fire by US president Donald Trump’s tariff wars and Russia’s war with Ukraine.
This has left the average Aussie consumer pessimistic about the economy, notching up an 85 point rating against a baseline of 100 points.
What is interesting about Westpac’s analysis is how varied different voters are about the economic outlook.
For example, men are much more optimistic than women, Baby Boomers are much more optimistic than every other generation, property investors are cheering but minor party voters (aka Pauline Hanson supporters) “want to burn the joint down”.
Hassan had a clear message for marketers that is often overlooked.
“Out in pole position at the moment is over 55s. That subgroup is now about 40 per cent of all households in Australia. Their share of vehicle spend has risen by about 8-9 points since 2020 and they are financially well placed,” he said.
“Their net worth is around, on average, $2.5 million…and they’re pretty happy to spend. When they spend, they spend more on new products.”
