There was a 4.3 per cent increase to 180,754 in the number of new cars licensed in 2007, according to data from the Central Statistics Office.
The report also shows that there were 58,719 second-hand private cars licensed last year, an increase of 8.2 per cent.
The CSO said that the number of new goods vehicles licensed last year was 46,043 compared with 43,619 in 2006, an increase of 5.6 per cent.
Overall, there were 333,996 vehicles licenced for the first time in 2007, a rise of around 17,000 on the total for the previous year.
By make, Toyota had the highest number of new cars licenced with 27,030, followed by Volkswagen with 21,087.
