New car registrations climb 55% in February

The Government's scrappage scheme seems to have given a much needed boost to the motor trade.

New figures from Motorcheck.ie show the number of new cars registered in February rose by 55% on the same month last year.

Total sales for 2010 are now 21% ahead of 2009, and with pre-orders building, look set to continue ahead of last year's low.

Top of the table for 'Manufacturer' in February is Toyota with 4,036 registrations.

Ford comes second just 105 registrations behind with their Fiesta and Focus models have proven to be first and second most popular models with 1,471 and 1,348 respectively.

Diesel continues to outsell Petrol with 59% (17,047) of new vehicles registered.

B and B moves up a percentage point as the most common tax class with 44% (12,750) of all registrations.

The battle for most popular colour gets close as only 17 registrations now separates Silver (7,157) from Black (7,140) as the most popular colour on Irish roads.

There have been 86 convertibles registered in Ireland so far this year.