Sales of new cars on the increase

There was a 8.12% increase in sales of new in March of this year (28,107) compared to March 2006 (25,999), according to figures released by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) today.

Sales for the first three months of the year (100,773) were 6.84% up on the same period in 2006 (94,322).

"There has been a very healthy start to the year," said SIMI CEO, Cyril McHugh.

"There has been a very healthy start to the year. However, an ever increasing percentage of new car sales are now being channelled into the first quarter. In 2003, 48% of sales took place in the first three months of the year. This rose to 53.5% in 2006."

On this basis, McHugh expects total car sales in 2007 to be in the region of 185,000, which he added would be an excellent year.

"This reflects the general buoyancy in the economy and that SSIA's are playing a part both in new and used car sales from SIMI garages," he said.

Light Commercial Vehicle sales for the first three months of 2007 (21,201) are up 15.55% on the same period last year (18,348) while heavy vehicle sales are down 17% (2,159) up to end of March 2007 compared to the same period in 2006 (2,337).

Details of sales of new cars, light commercial vehicles, heavy commercial vehicles and buses are attached.