THE first half of 2002 has passed and, for the dealers and distributors who have been assessing it for sales, the conclusion is like the curate's egg: good in parts. Andrew Hamilton reports
The figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) show that 119,732 new 02 cars went on Irish roads, a drop of 7 per cent on the same period for last year.
Ford was market leader, but only just. It took 13,328 of the 02 cars, just 11 cars ahead of nearest rival Toyota. For Ford's marketing director, Denis McSweeney, the year's performance so far has been "not at all bad", and indeed exceeded Ford expectations.
"It's marginally ahead of what we forecast for the year as a whole. We were seeing a total market of 145,000 new cars but, with these six-month statistics to hand now, it could be up to 153,000."
Big volume importers such as Ford, Toyota, Opel, Nissan and Renault have all been affected by a distinct fall-off in the supermini and small family car segments where, unlike company users, people are buying or borrowing from their own resources. These segments boomed in 2000, contributing hugely to the record 230,000 registrations for that year.
Conditions are much tighter now, in spite of the fact that interest rates remain attractively low. Customers contemplating changing to a new model often find themselves with a less-than-attractive trade-in offer. Dealers who had an inflated inventory of used car stocks after the 2000 boom are now much more prudent.
Denis McSweeney admits that this situation in itself has had an effect: "The new car market is always influenced by the used car scene. Dealers can trade successfully in new cars only if they know that they can dispose of used stock quickly. They are much more aware of keeping down their used inventory."
For Ford, too, the first half of 2002 was good in parts. Two of its models, the Focus and the Mondeo, accounted for over 9 per cent of total new car sales. The Focus, with nearly 7,000 sales, remains Ireland's best-selling car. But missing was the new Fiesta supermini which had its international press launch last January. It's only now going on sale here. "We would have liked it to be different but we had to give precedence to bigger volume markets like the UK where number plate changes have a major impact on sales," explains Mr McSweeney.
For the most part, executive or luxury marques haven't been affected by the downturn in sales and, by contrast, have gone the other way. Most spectacular of all is Audi - its 2,287 sales are 43 per cent up on last year, with the A4 compact executive doubling the numbers sold. "Audi is 35 years in business in Ireland and this is our best ever year by far," says John Hayes, Audi sales manager.
For BMW, which is also 35 years on the Irish market, it's a record first half as well. "We've put 3,282 BMWs on Irish roads in the six months which we have never done before," says Clare O'Neill, spokeswoman for BMW importers, Motor Import. "That compares with 3,165 in the same period of 2001. We have a 3.5 per cent market share compared with 2.46 per cent last year. We see it very much as a barometer of the economic confidence that's still around."
Jaguar buyers shared that confidence - sales at 191 were up 12 per cent on the first half of 2001. "We see the arrival of the 2.0 litre X-Type boosting our influence further in 2002 and beyond," says Anthony Neville for Jaguar Ireland.