See all Motoring NewsThe Irish motor industry continues its celebrations as March proved to be another bumper month of new vehicle registrations. Some 21,697 new cars were registered in Ireland on the third month of the year, which represents a 14 per cent increase on the same period in 2015. Meanwhile, Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) registrations were up 21 per cent, at 3,435, and sales of Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) increased 29 per cent. In total, new car registrations for the year to date are up over 28 per cent of those last year, at 82,882 cars.
In terms of car brands, Toyota leads the way, topping the overall charts with 9,204 cars registered in the first quarter of the year, or 11.1 per cent of the market. It's followed by Hyundai, Volkswagen, Ford, Nissan, Skoda, Renault and Opel.
Toyota's position at the top of the tree is partially explained by the fact that it's the only manufacturer to have three models in the top ten, with the Corolla in sixth, the Yaris in eighth and the Auris in tenth. Nonetheless, the outright sales star of the year so far is the Hyundai Tucson crossover, which has found 4,309 homes to date. That’s considerably more than the second-placed Volkswagen Golf (2,868 registrations), followed by the Ford Focus, Nissan Qashqai, Skoda Octavia, Toyota Corolla, Ford Fiesta and Toyota Yaris.
Commenting on the figurers SIMI Director General Alan Nolan said
“The increase in new car sales has continued for the month of March. While the stats show a lower percentage increase for the month it is important to put this into context, as the sales period for March 2016 had two trading days less than in 2015, with Easter having fallen in April last year. Even with this, the increase in sales across all sectors has continued upwards and it is encouraging to see consumers and businesses investing in their vehicles again."
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