Sales figures for '132' cars exceed last July in just 8 days

The new split registration plate system seems to be boosting car sales.

Car sales in the first eight days of July have already exceeded sales for the whole of July last year .

Since the start of the month 4,675 new cars bearing the new "132" plate have been sold - exceeding last July's full month's sales of 4,424.

The top selling brands were Ford, Volkswagen and Hyundai.

It's something that we have been looking for for four or five years," explained Brian Cooke of the Irish Motor Industry.

"I think the real success we'll only see in three of four years' time, when those cars start to come back in as trade-ins, hopefully when we return to a more normal level of sales.

"It has been a very positive start, but it is early days."