The A1 or 'mini' segment, which represents the most affordable and minimalist cars available in Ireland, imploded in the first two months of the year, with sales more than halved from an already small market share in overall Irish terms.
TOP SELLERS: Ford Ka, Fiat Seicento, Suzuki Wagon R
Within the segment, the big loser was Fiat, whose Seicento normally leads but dropped by 77 per cent to a mere 85 units. The car is on a runout, and its successor was revealed at the recent Geneva Show. The new leader is Ford's Ka, though sales declined from 254 in the same period in 2002 to just 161.
Suzuki held its third place with a slight increase in units, to 78, while its Opel cousin Agila dropped fairly massively from last year's respectable 117 to a mere 40. Citroen's Saxo, on a runout for replacement by the C2, also suffered an 80 per cent drop to 38.
Riding on an overall wave of success by SEAT at the moment, its diminutive Arosa has recorded a 700 per cent increase in sales to 24 cars. VW cousin Lupo, on the other hand, halved its sales to 17 units.
Overall, there were 535 A-segment cars sold in January- February, compared to 1,231 over the same period last year.SUPERMINI
TOP SELLERS: Nissan Micra, Ford Fiesta, Fiat Punto
With about 27 per cent of all car sales here, the B segment has shown growth for the early 2003 selling period. In the January-February sales, Nissan's new Micra ruled the roost with 1,843 cars registered, closely followed by Ford's Fiesta (1,792).
The usual segment leader, Fiat Punto (1,776) came in third this time, recording a 23 per cent drop in unit sales.
Peugeot's 206, Europe's best-selling car, slumped by a fifth to 1,414 units, while VW's Polo did much better than last year, moving 1,078 cars compared to 554 in the same period in 2002.
Toyota's Yaris (1,046) dipped by almost a third, while Opel's Corsa (880) nearly halved its sales. Renault's Clio (732) lost ground by more than 31 per cent, while Ford's Fusion (637) did better than many might have expected.
Among the more satisfied people are the SEAT importers, who saw the new Ibiza (591) surge by 172 per cent, and newcomer Daewoo Kalos also did the business, going from scratch to 568. Similarly, Citroen's new C3 (499) more than made up for the drop in Saxo sales in the lower segment.
Skoda's Fabia (422) lost a quarter of its sales, but Hyundai's Getz (358) put that newcomer from the ambitious Korean maker well up the league. Honda's Jazz (102) slipped from its 123 of the year before, while the iconic MINI (94) more or less held its position.
Another big loser was MG Rover, who saw its ageing MG ZR (84) and Rover 25 (55) only trickle from the showrooms.
• Figures in brackets: first figure - sales for Jan-Feb 2003/second figure - sales for Jan-Feb 2002