NEW CAR sales in January reached 21,313, up 1.5 per cent on the first month of last year.
Toyota remains the top-selling brand among new car buyers with 3,434 new registrations, according to figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (Simi). That’s well ahead of rivals Ford, with 2,685, and Volkswagen, with 2,627.
The rise in sales is all the more remarkable when last year’s Government’s scrappage scheme is taken into account.
This contributed 3,057 new car sales to the 20,999 registrations in January last year.
According to Alan Nolan, director general of the Simi: “Despite the strong start, we are still fairly cautious about the outlook for the year, predicting a fall of around 15 per cent in new car sales for the full year which would deliver a market in the region of 76,000 new car sales for 2012.”
At the premium end of the market, BMW recorded sales of 855 last month, ahead of rivals Audi with 764 and Mercedes with 526 new car registrations. Both BMW and Audi are in the top 10 best selling car brands last month, with the BMW 5-Series outselling more mainstream models like the Renault Clio, Ford Mondeo and Nissan Micra.
Diesel remains the dominant fuel choice for new buyers, making up 73 per cent of all sales, while petrol-electric hybrids made up 209 sales.
There were only nine fully electric cars sold last month.
With the Government currently reviewing the current tax regime over concerns about the significant fall in tax revenue from the motor sector since 2008, the argument against changes will not be helped by the fact that 92.4 per cent of new cars sold last month qualified for the two lowest tax bands.
Dublin remains by far the largest market for new sales, with registrations of 6,797, followed by Cork with 2,881, and Galway with 932. Leitrim recorded the least number of registrations with just 110.
* January 2012 car sales. Top five brands: Toyota 3,434; Ford 2,685; Volkswagen 2,627; Renault 1,502; Nissan 1,440.