123,670 - that, according to the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), is the number of new cars registered in Ireland to the end of October 2015. That makes this officially the healthiest year for Ireland's car dealers and importers since 2008, and it means we're inching closer to the roughly 130,000 figure, which has long been touted as the natural replacement level for car registrations in Ireland. It's certainly a long, long way from the dark days of 2009 at any rate.
Registrations in October itself were up by 28 per cent compared to this time last year, and up by 30 per cent for the year so far as a whole. Light commercial and heavy goods vehicle registrations dropped though, and that will be a concern as healthy van registrations have been much played up by the industry this year as a sign of a recovering economy. SIMI seems sanguine about the commercial numbers though, putting it down to seasonal variations.
Commenting on the figurers SIMI Director General Alan Nolan said "Although we are talking about relatively small numbers at this time of year, new car registrations are continuing to perform ahead of last year, month on month, as the Industry continues to strive towards a more normal level of business. The success of the two period registration system continues to be highlighted in the numbers with the 152 period delivering even better than last year's second period. The 152 registrations are now likely to represent in excess of 34% of the year's new car registrations compared to just less than 32% last year. With over 120,000 new cars registered by the end of last month, this represents the highest growth in new car registrations in seven years, as 2008 (151,444) was the last year when sales were at sustainable levels. Both Light and Heavy Commercial vehicles are down for the month of October, this is not surprising as we are coming towards the end of the year with the focus moving towards 2016."
There was heartening news for Volkswagen too - amid the heat of the constantly developing emissions cheating scandal, Volkswagen customers voted with their feet and wallets and kept the Golf in the top slot for October. It means that the Golf is still the most popular car for the year so far, followed by the Ford Focus, Nissan Qashqai, Skoda Octavia and Ford Fiesta. Volkswagen remains the most popular brand overall this year, with Toyota in second place, then Ford, Hyundai, and Nissan.