New car sales are expected to record their second-best year ever, with end-of-year figures predicted to reach 190,000.
That will be second only to 2000 when 230,000 new cars were sold.
So far this year, sales are up 6.9 per cent on 2006, with sales for May up 17.5 per cent on the same month last year. The total for the year to date is 138,212 new cars, according to figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI).
Toyota retains the largest market share with 15 per cent of the market, recording sales of 3,359 vehicles for the month and 20,753 units for the year to date. This is just ahead of Volks-wagen in second place with 11.3 per cent and Ford in third position with 10.9 per cent. Such a strong figure for the month of May would indicate that matured SSIAs are being used to purchase new cars.
Ford continues to enjoy the biggest-selling individual model, with the Focus being the best seller in May and indeed for the year-to-date with 5.8 per cent of the market share.
While sales remain buoyant, there are concerns over the introduction of proposed changes to the Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) system. While Government plans to introduce a VRT system based partially or wholly on CO2 emissions of vehicles, there are concerns over the timeframe. The changes are set to be introduced by January 1st. Eddie Murphy, Ford's chairman and managing director, said: "We do have a concern over the date because it leaves us very little time to plan ahead. We are already beginning the process of ordering cars for next year and we are still somewhat in the dark as to what is going to happen. If there is a change to a VRT system based on CO2 emissions alone then it won't really affect us greatly but it would be a case of winning on some counts and losing on others."
Despite the growth in sales, most importers and distributors say evidence of a sudden SSIA windfall remains sparse.
Tom O'Connor of Volks-wagen distributors MDL said: "There is no great science behind analysing the traffic in relation to matured SSIAs but a strong month at this stage of the year would indicate that there are people investing the amount they saved into a car loan."