Number of licenced new private cars up nearly 9%

The Irish infatuation with new cars continued in October 2000 as the number of new private licensed cars increased by almost 9 per cent, figures released today by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.

There were 9,301 new private cars licenced in October 2000, compared with 8,537 in October 1999, an increase of 8.9 per cent.

This compares with a decrease in the licencing of second-hand private cars by 38.9 per cent or 1,105 in October and a decrease of 10,534 or 33.7 per cent for the first 10 months of 2000.

Licencing of new goods vehicles was up 3.1 per cent in October and rose 13.6 per cent to 3,621 units for the first 10 months of 2000.

The CSO figures show that the total number of all vehicles licenced was for January to October 2000 increased by 20.2 per cent to 293,285 vehicles compared with 244,085 for the same period in 1999.