Figures released by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (Simi) show that sales of new cars rose by 3.91 per cent compared to January 2007.
Many within the industry had feared that there might be a slowdown in sales as customers waited for the potential savings that the new VRT system might bring when it comes into effect on July 1st.
Some 47,609 new cars were registered in January this year, compared to 45,819 in January 2007. Commenting on the January figures, Alan Nolan, director general designate of Simi, said: "This is a very strong start to the year, perhaps reflecting the fact that there are good deals to be found on garage forecourts at the moment. However, it is much too early to anticipate how the market will continue through the year."
Toyota dominated the sales charts, with 6,312 vehicles registered in January, giving them 13.26 per cent of the market share, closely followed by Ford just 78 units behind with 13.09 per cent market share. Volkswagen lies in third place with 4,794 units, 1,440 units behind Ford and with 10.07 per cent of the market share. The top five, which also includes Opel and Nissan, is the same as January 2007, when Ford held the top spot ahead of Toyota.
Peugeot dropped 1.07 per cent of their market share last month, compared with January 2007, with Mazda taking their place in the top 10.
The placing of BMW and Mercedes-Benz within the top 10 illustrates that Ireland's appetite for executive cars shows little sign of slowing down.
David McGonigle, managing director of Mazda Motor Ireland, has seen little change in buyer behaviour compared to last year. "We are obviously delighted to have broken into the top 10, and this is due to all of our products performing well.
"Obviously there may be a small number of buyers who may be confused about the changes to VRT and they may wait until July to make their purchase, but we are not seeing the market being affected too much. We do expect a "spurt" in sales in July, if not quite a huge jump, but overall we see this year as being similar in numbers to last year."
Neil Costello, marketing manager of Citroën Ireland, says that the brand has not enjoyed the sales it would have liked, but will expect a better mid-year when their new C5 family car arrives. He feels that the negative publicity surrounding alleged price fixing by some of their dealers hasn't affected sales. "While it's not good to see the brand name reported in such a manner in the media, we have not received any negative feedback from the public and any of the dealers involved have not seen a slow down in their sales."
Eddie Murphy, chairman and manager director of Ford Ireland, sees no major change in trends this month, compared to the same period last year. "This was a strong month when viewed in isolation although we did see that new business enquiries were down.
"Buyers are still keen to get their new registrations early in the year, and we sold very well on Mondeo and Focus, even though the Focus is a run-out model.
"We expect to see increased activity in July, but it certainly won't be to January levels. We would expect July sales to be roughly double that of July 2007."