UP TO FIVE per cent of new cars registered in 2009 were seemingly still untaxed by the end of the year, amid suggestions that many of these were registered but unsold to private buyers by year’s end.
A comparison between the number of cars registered last year and the number taxed for the first time suggests that up to 3,000 new cars were pre-registrations or hire drive cars that have never taken to the road.
The figures for new registrations last year, considered by many as the official sales statistics, show that 57,460 new passenger cars were registered for the year.
However, figures from the Central Statistics Office (CS0) count the number of new private passenger cars as they are first taxed. The CSO figure for the year was 54,432. This does not include used imports taxed in Ireland for the first time.
While some buyers may delay taxing a car for a few weeks after registration, December new registrations were just 308 cars, indicating that this is not the main reason for the 3,028 difference in the figures.
Some of the vehicles may also fall into the tax exempt category for passenger cars that are part of the State fleet or bought by disabled drivers, but industry sources accept that these did not form a substantial number of new registrations last year.
One reason for the sizeable discrepancy may be that distributors and dealers pre-registered cars to improve their end of year sales figures.
According to Shane Teskey of motorcheck.ie, it is common industry practice for some dealers to register cars in order to meet their sales target, in the hope of selling the cars before the year end.
“Some of those cars clearly went unsold and with low mileage and 2009 registration, they offer significant value for customers these days,” said Teskey.
The latest registration figures from the online vehicle check website, motorcheck.ie, shows that up to the end of Monday, February 15th, 22,431 new cars have been registered for the year, an increase of 16 per cent on the same period last year.
There was also a significant rise over the first 10 days of February, with 4,089 new cars registered compared to 2,950 last year. Part of this rise is being attributed to buyers who delayed taking delivery of their new cars last month due to the bad weather.
In terms of brands, Toyota seems to have seen off the damage to the brand from its recent recall crisis, taking the lead over Ford, with sales of 3,181 compared to 3,111 for the US brand up to the close of business on Monday.
Toyota’s sales boost seems to have come at the height of the recall coverage, with 781 registrations during the first 10 days of February, well ahead of registrations for rivals Ford (381) or Volkswagen (505) over the same period.
THE FIGURES
2009 NEW CAR STATS
57,460 New passenger cars registered in 2009 (SIMI)
54,432 New passenger cars licensed (taxed) for the first time in 2009 (CSO)
JAN NEW CAR STATS
16,595 New passenger cars registered (SIMI)
10,469 New passenger cars licensed (taxed) for the first time (CSO)