The new year could also have clearance sales of the previous year's cars at discounted prices. January is a carry-over month of the previous year's cars for dealers, who are motivated to sell them at discounted rates before February-March when these cars become less appealing to buyers.
It's good to be aware that every car in Australia carries a build plate and a compliance plate, each of which can be found in the engine bay. The build plate has the unique vehicle identification number (VIN) and the engine, transmission, and paint codes, along with the date of manufacture, which is usually the month and year. The compliance plate confirms the VIN and has the month and year the vehicle was certified as compliant with the Australian Design Rules (ADR) and approved for sale.
In the case of vehicles that have been imported into Australia and have travel times on ships, the date of compliance will be different from the date of manufacture. For example, if you purchased and registered your new car in March 2021, it will show 2021 on the compliance plate, but the build plate will list the date of manufacture as November 2020. The build plate date counts to show the model year of the car, which in this case is 2020.
Do bear in mind that it's always a good idea to clarify the build date of the car you intend to buy. In extreme cases of slow-moving models, what looks like a 2023 model could well be a 2021 one, if it has been lying around unsold at the dealer or distributor.