What's the news?
Statistics released by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) reveal that there has been a downward shift in new car sales this year in comparison to 2016.
Nearly 7,000 fewer cars have been sold in the first quarter of 2017 than were sold in the same period last year, and March alone has seen a 7.5 per cent drop in new car registrations.
Alan Nolan, Director General of SIMI, commented: "We have previously indicated that the extent of the apparent fall in registrations over recent weeks were at least in part a question of timing, as in 2016 Easter had fallen in March with the result that the seasonal registration of hire-drive fleets was always going to be later this year. With these starting to come through in the last few days of the month we have seen the figures start to improve, but clearly the trend is indicating a reduction on last year's market."
A marked rise in registrations at the end of the month (2,692 cars were registered on March 30th alone) tallies with those comments, but the reality is that consumer sentiment is not at the level it should be, despite the recent economic upswing. An interesting point to note is that there has been a 56.1 per cent leap in the amount of imports (23,864 for Q1), largely influenced by the weakening of Sterling thanks to the Brexit situation. Of these, only 130 were brand new cars, with the majority comprised of cars four years and older.