New car registrations soar by 32% in 2000

Over 225,000 new private cars were licensed in Ireland last year, up 32 per cent on 1999.

This is the highest ever recorded according to Central Statistics Office figures today.

There were 24,000 second-hand cars licensed last year compared to 36,878 last year, a fall of 34.9 per cent.

Commercial vehicle registrations rose by 11.8 per cent to 33,606 in 2000, bringing all vehicles licensed in 2000 to 314,292.

The figures show Toyota was the most popular private car to be licensed with 25,189 new cars on the road, followed by Ford (25,064), Nissan (23,231), Volkwagen (22,538) and Opel (21,205).