News

Data released today by the Motorcheck.ie Vehicle Index shows that new car sales in Ireland have dropped by 63% since the beginning of 2009 while imports from abroad have only dropped 24%. The Index shows that nationwide sales of new cars have seen a sustained month on month decline for every single county. Counties with the greatest declines were Meath, Limerick and Wicklow at 67% while counties with the lowest decline were Donegal at 57%, Kerry at 60% and Cork at 61%.

Commenting on the results, Teskey added "The nationwide statistics demonstrate that Irish people are being much more cautious with their spending habits this year, preferring to either wait for better deals from the manufacturers or spending more time researching and buying second hand".

At the same time as new car sales have dropped the number of people opting for a UK import has declined at a much lower rate (24%). Border counties such as Monaghan and Sligo have remained steady with drops of only 2% and 6% respectively. The biggest importers have been Dublin (9,525), Cork (4,358) and Donegal (4,397) while the most popular type of car has been a Volkswagen with its Passat topping the table at 3,342 registrations.

"Whilst the overall number of imports has dropped this year, it's clear that the Irish are still prepared to travel north of the border or further afield in search of a bargain" Teskey said. "With 10,000 jobs already lost in the sector, all hopes are resting on the proposed government scrappage scheme in a last ditch attempt to save 10,000 more that are hanging on by a thread".

About the Motorcheck.ie Car Index
The Motorcheck.ie Car Index is a database of realtime car statistics and reports. The index is  available on the Motorcheck.ie website to anyone. They can be accessed at: http://www.motorcheck.ie/blog/stats