May Car Registrations Down but Industry Optimistic for 172
New figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) show that car sales in May (5,990) were down 7.83% compared to the same month in 2016 (6,499), and cars for the year to date (89,790) are down 9.94% compared to the same period last year (99,704).
Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV) sales fell in May by 19.63% with 1,462 registrations compared to 1,819 in May last year. Sales for LCV’s for the year so far were down 13.9% (15,098) compared to the same period in 2016 (17,535). The top five best selling LCV makes so far this year are: Ford (3,558), Volkswagen (2,843), Renault (1,911), Toyota (1,352) and Peugeot (1,076).
Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGC) sales were down 16.36% (259) in May compared to the same month last year (306). And sales were down 9.23% (1,524) for the year so far compared to the same period last year (1,679). The top five selling makes of HGV so far this year are: Volvo (377), Scania (339), Mercedes-Benz (201), Daf (156) and Renault (122).
Volkswagen was the top selling make in May with 927 units, followed by Hyundai, Toyota, Skoda and Kia. Volkswagen was also the best selling brand for the year to date with 9,057 units with Toyota (8,769), Hyundai (8,523), Ford (8,429) and Nissan (7,667) completing the top five.
The top selling car of the month was the Volkswagen Polo. The five top car model’s for the year to date are the Hyundai Tucson (3,563), Nissan Qashqai (3,128), Skoda Octavia (2,753), Volkswagen Golf (2,699) and Ford Focus (2,607).
Commenting on the figures, SIMI Director General, Alan Nolan, said; “With the first five months of the year now behind us, the decline in registrations across all sectors has been a noticeable trend reflecting the unpredictable nature of the market at present. As we near the end of the 171 registration period, there will undoubtedly be incentives to purchase before the end of June. Notwithstanding this the Industry and consumers are turning their focus to the second registration plate, which since its introduction has seen the proportion of the full year market occurring in the second half of the year increasing significantly. This year we will again see each brand offer innovative packages to encourage the purchase of new 172 cars.
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