SIMI: New car sales down 77%

The Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) today revealed that new car sales for last month are down 77.06% to 3,759 from July 2008 (16,386).

The year to date figure, at 50,530, is down 64.02% on the figure to end of July last year (140,447), according to SIMI.

SIMI’s Brian Cooke, said: "While new car registrations are 77% down for the month of July, this fall in sales in not as dramatic as it may appear. The extent of the reduction in sales can be attributed to the introduction of the Government’s C02 based VRT changes in July 2008.

"This resulted in many consumers holding off on their 2008 new car purchase until after the changes were introduced, resulting in a significant increase in new car registrations in July of last year as consumers benefited from the savings that followed the VRT and Road Tax changes.

"Therefore, taking this unusual increase in July 2008 into account, the trend is in line with our forecast for the month of July."

"On the used car side, we are seeing an increase in used car activity in dealerships which reflects the value available in today’s marketplace and the competitive prices available on forecourts across the country.

"While this is positive for the industry, the lack of finance availability is still a major cause for concern and frustration for our members. Although the banks continue to advertise credit availability, the reality, in our many of our members’ experience, is proving quite different.” Cooke added,

Imported used car registrations for July, at 3,641, were down 49.66% on the July 2008 figure of 7,233.

For the year to date (January to July) at 35,680, imported used cars are 15.32% down on the same period last year, 42,133.

Light commercial vehicle registrations for July 2009 (985) are down 40.73% on the same period last year (1,662), the year to date figure at 7,032 is 73.32% down on the first seven months of last year (26,358).

Heavy vehicle registrations are down 68.8% (83) compared to July 2008 (266) while they are down 72.51% (844) for the year to date compared to the same period in 2008 (3,070).