Despite a concerted backlash against SUVs, the public's appetite for such vehicles remains strong, with the latest new car sales figures showing sales of these vehicles up 29.6 per cent to the end of July, at a time when the overall new car market grew by 6.2 per cent, compared to the same period in 2006.
Although the overwhelming majority of new car sales came from the small family car market - with models such as the Ford Focus and VW Golf - and the mainstream family car market, with models such as the Toyota Avensis and Volkswagen Passat, the SUV segment has shown the greatest increase in its market share from 5.6 per cent last year to 6.8 per cent up to the end of July.
While SUV sales in Britain have shown a 4 per cent drop for the first six months of the year, sales of SUVs in Ireland are up 29.6 per cent compared to the same period in 2006. This is despite indications that the segment may face increased taxes in a revised Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) system due next year.
It is expected that any change in VRT is likely to take into account CO2 emissions, and many of these SUVs will be hardest hit, especially those at the higher end of the segment.
Much of this growth can be attributed to the launch this year of the Nissan Qashqai, which dominates SUV sales with some 18.9 per cent of its segment.
However, these figures do not account for luxury SUVs, which fall into a separate luxury vehicle category. Sales of Range Rovers are up 24 per cent.
As a bellwether to the state of the overall economy, new car sales do not seem to be suffering unduly from the predictions of a downturn.
Even in the commercial vehicle sector - usually an early indicator of tougher times in the building industry - sales are up 12.5 per cent to the end of July, compared to the same period in 2006; and, according to Dave Shannon, managing director of Toyota Ireland, any talk of a downturn in the economy has yet to filter down to sales.