FOR ANYONE wondering why they still haven’t seen a 09 reg so far this year, the answer is provided in early figures for car sales from the Department of Environment.
These show that new vehicle sales fell by 64 per cent in the first five days of trading in 2009.
The beginning of January is normally a boom time for car showrooms, but the figures from the National Vehicle and Drivers File show that just 9,390 vehicles were registered in the first five days of January, compared with 26,029 for the same period in 2008.
The figures also show a major shift toward diesel-fuelled vehicles, encouraged by Government measures favouring cars with lower CO2 emissions. Only two of the top 10 sellers use petrol and the rest are powered by diesel; last year, nine out of the top 10 were petrol driven.
The total number of vehicles registered in 2008 fell by 16 per cent from 338,566 to 285,514.
The National Vehicle and Drivers File database is maintained by the Department of Environment.
The top-selling car so far this year is the Nissan Qashqai 1.5 diesel, with sales of 377 units. This compares to 714 sales of the Ford Focus 1.4 petrol, which headed the list in the same period last year.
Other cars in the top 10 in 2009 were Ford Fiesta, Toyota Avensis, Toyota Yaris, Volkswagen Passat, Toyota Corolla, Audi A4 and the Skoda Octavia.
While new car sales are tailing off, sales of imported used cars remain steady, figures also show. The total number of vehicles imported into Ireland in 2008 increased by 1 per cent to 90,736.
Car records checking firm Cartell.ie said vehicle sales were clearly hit by low consumer demand but noted the changeover to diesel as encouraging from an environmental perspective.
“The switch to diesel-powered vehicles has been motivated by the Government’s new tax and VRT regime introduced in July 2008,” said Cartell.ie director Jeff Aherne.
