Car sales are down for the third month in succession, down to Brexit amongst other things.
New car sales, it turns out, are down by 8% for the first quarter of 2017 according to new figures released by Motorcheck.ie on Monday.
The dip in new car sales, according to Motorcheck, is due to uncertainty in the economy caused by Brexit and exchange rates which make it very attractive to import used vehicles from the UK rather than buy them brand new in Ireland.
The figures bear that out, with registration figures on used vehicles being imported into the state up a whopping 56% for the first quarter of 2017 compared to the same period last year.
Almost 24,000 imported vehicles were brought into Ireland in the first quarter of this year, with the motor trade predicting that 90,000 cars in total will be imported into Ireland in 2017, compared to 72,000 last year.
Motorcheck echoed the sentiments of a recent AA report detailing a rise in the number of vehicles with ‘clocked mileage’ coming into the country and warned consumers of the need for vigilance when importing cars from the UK.
As far as new cars bought in Ireland are concerned, the top models in the first quarter of 2017 were the Hyundai Tucson, Nissan Qashqai, Ford Focus, Skoda Octavia and Volkswagen Golf.
As far as imported cars are concerned, meanwhile, the most popular models in 2017 so far are the Ford Focus, Volkswagen Golf, Volkswagen Passat, Audi A4 and Nissan Qashqai.
Car sales stats, first quarter of 2017
Top selling manufacturers
- Toyota
- Ford
- Volkswagen
- Hyundai
- Nissan
Top selling models
- Hyundai Tucson
- Nissan Qashqai
- Ford Focus
- Skoda Octavia
- Volkswagen Golf
Top selling light commercial manufacturers
- Ford
- Volkswagen
- Renault
- Toyota
- Peugeot
Top selling light commercial models
- Ford Transit
- Volkswagen Caddy
- Ford Transit Connect
- Renault Traffic
- Peugeot Partner
Top selling imported manufacturers
- Ford
- Volkswagen
- Audi
- Toyota
- Vauxhall/Opel
Top selling imported models
- Ford Focus
- VW Golf
- VW Passat
- Audi A4
- Nissan Qashqai
