New car sales drop by 34% in June

New car sales were down by a third last month compared with the same period last year, data from the Central Statistics Office today show.

It said 4,833 new cars were registered in June, down from 7,369 in the same month in 2008, a decrease of over 34 per cent.

The June data are an improvement over that for May and April, when declines of 60 and 68 per cent respectively were recorded.

A total of 1,025 goods vehicles were registered for the first time last month, compared to 2,827 a year earlier, equivalent to a decrease of 63.7 per cent. There were 3,992 used cars imported and registered for the first time in June.

Of the new cars registered in June, 46.8 per cent were diesel and 51.7 per cent were petrol.

The data shows that tax band B, which costs €150 per year, had the highest number of cars registered at 1,863.

By make the most popular new car sold in June this year was Ford, followed by Volkswagen and then Toyota. Among premium marques Audi was the top seller followed by BMW and Mercedes Benz.

For imported cars Volkswagen was the most popular marque, followed by Toyota and BMW.