New car sales up 31% as Toyota best seller

New car registrations increased by 30.85 per cent last month, compared to January 2014.

In what is traditionally the busiest month of the year for new car sales, figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) show that 29,948 new cars were registered, compared to 22,893 for the same month last year.

Toyota is the best selling brand for the month, with 3,866 new car registrations. It has knocked Volkswagen(3,219 registrations) from the top spot. Ford is third with 3,129 registrations, followed by Hyundai in fourth place with 2,941.

In the premium segment Audi with 1,213 registrations was just ahead of BMW with 1,026.

The VW Golf is the bestselling car so far this year, followed by the Ford Focus and Toyota Corolla, in second and third place respectively. Over 1,500 VW Golf cars were sold in the month of January.

Industry expectations are that new car sales could reach as high as 120,000 by the end of 2015, a significant rise on the 96,254 registered last year.

According to Steve Tormey, chief executive of Toyota Ireland: “We’re delighted with the strong start we’ve had in 2015 and feel very well placed to continue to capitalise on the positive market outlook and growing consumer confidence.”

Used import registrations declined by almost 5 per cent on January 2014 levels with just 4,624 used imports registered in January 2015.

Michael Rochford, managing director of online car history checking website Motorcheck.ie said: “the industry bounced back in 2014 and it’s great to see the positive trends continuing into 2015. It is predicted that there will be between 105,000 and 115,000 new car registrations this year, and these are the kind of levels required to sustain a healthy motor trade. It is also good to see the increases in the used car market. The volume of transactions in this market actually dwarf the new car market and the increases here are a real sign of a return of consumer confidence and the availability of personal credit.”

Similarly commercial sales are up significantly on last year with over 5,703 new commercial vehicles registered last month, an increase of approximately 57 per cent on the January last year.