VW remains Ireland’s top-selling brand despite emissions scandal

Volkswagen remains Ireland’s top-selling car brand despite the recent emissions scandal.

Vehicle registration figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show 204 VWs were sold last month. This was ahead of Opel (187), Ford (166), BMW (152) and Renault (130).

Together these five car brands made up 45 per cent of all new private cars licensed.

The figures show there were 874 new private cars licensed for the first time in November, 28 per cent up on the same month last year.

A total of 3,906 used (imported) private cars were licensed, representing a fall of 6.5 per cent on the same month last year.

The latest figures brought the total number of cars licensed here in the first eleven months to 120,263, representing a rise of 31.5 per cent on the equivalent period last year.

The number of used (imported) private cars licensed fell by 11.3 per cent compared with the same period in 2014.

Seven out of every ten new private cars licensed were diesel fuelled.

There was a 30 per cent increase in the number of new goods vehicles licensed in November 2015, bringing the total to 1,314.