January 2006 saw 24,605 new private cars bought at a rate of a little under 1,000 each working day, according to figures released from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
This was 23.1 per cent ahead of the number of cars sold during the same month in 2005. The figures also showed a huge rise in the number of vehicles being imported.
According to the CSO, the licensing of second-hand vehicles in Ireland for the first time increased by 1,541 or over 80 per cent.
The number of new good vehicles licenced in the first month of 2006 was 3,899, a rise of 33.1 per cent on the comparative figure of 2,929 last year.
Overall there were 29 per cent more new vehicles licenced in this January compared with the previous year.
The best selling brands were Toyota, Ford, Volkswagen and Nissan.