Bumper year for car sales

OFFICIAL statistics released today by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) show that new car registrations are up 17% up to the end of November.

While sales last month, at 748, were down 192 vehicles (20%) on November last year, when 940 transactions were completed, the year-to-date figure shows a surge to 146,175 units compared to 124,460 for the same period last year.

Light commercial vehicles (LCV) have seen an increase of 8% (667) when compared to November 2015 (620) and are currently up 19% (28,001) year-to-date. Heavy goods vehicle (HGV) registrations are up 33% year to date (2,844) but have declined 9% for the month of November (71) 2016 compared to the same month last year (78).

In Mayo, registrations year-to-date are up 16.96% (2,814 units versus 2,406 for the same period last year), while the county's share of the overall market remains unchanged at 1.93%.

Alan Nolan, director general of SIMI, said that even with the challenges of Brexit and the slowing down of sales in the last couple of months, overall it has been a good year for the industry.

“This year,” he added, “has seen the highest levels in new vehicle registrations since 2008, and all indications suggest that registration numbers are on track to deliver in the region of 147,000 this year, as predicted.

“As the industry looks forward to next year and the key January sales period, the outlook remains strong for another good year in 2017. Jim Power, economist and author of the SIMI/DoneDeal Quarter 3 review, has commented that while the outlook for the economy is a bit more uncertain in the wake of Brexit, looking ahead to 2017, new car sales should have a similar outturn to 2016.”

The Hyundai Tuscon is the top selling car in Ireland this year, helping the Korean marque to the top of sales charts overall ahead of Volkswagen, Toyota, Ford and Nissan. The top selling car last month was Toyota's new CH-R.