This year looks set to be another bumper year for car sales in Ireland, with January posting the highest-ever sales figures for one month. Figures released by the SIMI show that 46,179 new cars were registered for the month, an increase of 7.8 per cent on this time last year.
However, there is concern in the industry at the increasing trend towards first quarter sales. Last year nearly 50 per cent of all cars were sold in the first part of the year and this move suggests that while January sales may rise, the fall-off in year-end sales may water down the overall sales increase for the year. Most industry sources estimate that the 7 per cent growth will not survive to the end of the year.
Alan Nolan, deputy chief executive of SIMI, says it is too early to anticipate whether this trend will be continued throughout the year, but it is an excellent start.
Ford is leading the charge with 6,277 units with 13.59 per cent of the market. Ford's chairman and managing director Eddie Murphy is understandably happy. "We have had a record-breaking start to the year with over 8,500 vehicles, so obviously we are very pleased with our performance. As regards the overall market, we have seen figures of a 6-7 per cent increase before, but we certainly believe it will be a very strong year."
At Toyota, despite not launching its new Corolla saloon until mid-January and the Auris hatchback last week, it enjoyed a record January with 5,843 units, making up 12.65 per cent of the market. Managing director Dave Shannon sees the potential for this to be a market of 200,000 cars: "From advice we are getting we do see the potential for the SSIAs to have an affect on the market. With €1.7 billion coming into the economy in April we could see a stretching of the market."
Volkswagen, third in the sales charts with 9.48 per cent of the market share, disagrees and sees the market becoming more compressed this year. Sales manager Tom O'Connor says that "perhaps up to 90 per cent of our new car sales will be done by July, a change from what used to be 75 per cent for the same period."
Kia is another firm with record sales for January. In 2006 they sold 3,500 cars but last month alone they sold 951 cars. Managing director James Brooks is delighted with the numbers, but expected a stronger market and noticed that many of the familiar trends are continuing. "There is no slow-down in the SUV segment, which we would obviously play a major part in. Our Sorento is still doing very well. Where we would notice a change is a move away from the A-segment, with buyers moving into larger cars. We also notice at showroom level that buyers are borrowing more to get into their new car."