The Volkswagen Golf remains the most searched for car in Ireland according to the latest Carzone Motoring Report, which covers the first six months of 2014. The Golf led a German front that saw five out of the top six cars hailing from Germany. Only the Ford Focus managed to make a showing for the rest of the world team, sandwiched between the Golf, BMW 5 Series and 3 Series, the Audi A4 and Volkswagen Passat.
The Carzone.ie report, conducted with the assistance of Cartell.ie (and CompleteCar.ie) and backed up by an extensive consumer survey, showed that used car transactions for the first six months of 2014 are up 19 per cent on 2013 with 541,000 vehicles changing hands. Within that number there was a rise in the sales of luxury cars with Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz sales all up by an average of 25 per cent compared to last year.
Diesel remains king with 81 per cent of Carzone users searching for cars powered by the black stuff as they look to cut their fuel and tax bills. This is despite the Carzone consumer survey showing that 77 per cent of respondents drive less than 100 kilometres a day and over 50 per cent drive less than 25 kilometres. With over half the motoring population falling into the comfort zone for hybrid or electric vehicles you would imagine more would be opting for such money-saving technology, but only one per cent of the 2,500 respondents said they would consider buying a hybrid or electric model for their next car.
Black remains the most searched for colour, racking up 22 per cent, putting it ahead of silver, red and grey. More significantly, Cartell.ie has shown that buyers are beginning to return to the three- or four-year car buying cycle that was prevalent before the recession.
Commenting on the findings of the report, Warren Cray, general manager at Carzone.ie, said: "Without doubt, these results point to a level of optimism in the market as used car transactions continue to rise. More than 100 million searches were carried out on Carzone.ie so far this year alone and we expect this figure to continue rising for the remainder of 2014. Indeed, over half of respondents to our survey plan to buy a car in the next six months while almost a quarter have already purchased a car this year so this would indicate the market is very much on the rise."
Anything else?
Away from sales and search figures the survey part of the Carzone Motoring report has thrown up some surprising statistics.
Despite safety ranking highly in the minds of car buyers only 59 per cent of respondents had heard of Euro NCAP and the work it does. Marginally lower (58.9 per cent) were not aware of the VAT and VRT implications of optional safety systems (something we have highlighted in the CompleteCar.ie iPad magazine) with the vast majority indicating their displeasure at the situation.
While 82.6 per cent of respondents knew the legislation relating to texting while driving a shocking 91.5 per cent said they had witnessed another driver either making a call or sending a text on a handheld device.