4,000 cars will sell in one week

The Society of the Irish Motor Industry is predicting that 4,000 new cars will be sold in the first week of the new 142 registration.

The 141 new-car registration period, which finished at the end of June, was up 12,451 cars (+23%) on the first six months of 2013, and while the SIMI says the industry will be watching the early July registrations very closely, there is a good deal of confidence that the numbers will remain ahead of last year’s, for the second half of the year as well.

The industry is anticipating that this may well be the best July, for new car sales, since 2008. Last year, the first year of the dual registration plate, almost 12,000 cars were sold in July, 18% of the total cars sold in 2013.

Car sales in June, which were expected to be slow in advance of the 142 plate, held steady, at 1,689, an increase of 1% on June, 2013.

So far this year, 65,715 cars have been sold, up by 23% on last year.

Meanwhile, Ford’s brilliant, one-litre EcoBoost engine has won the ‘Oscars’ of the engine world for an unprecedented third time in a row.

The diminutive unit — which lowers fuel consumption without sacrificing power — was named 2014 ‘international engine of the year’ for its driving capability, performance, economy, refinement and technology. And damn right, too.

A panel of 82 automotive journalists, from 35 countries, also named the 1.0-litre EcoBoost the ‘best engine under 1.0-litre’ for the third year in a row, at the Engine Expo 2014, in Stuttgart.

“To deliver the complete package of eye-popping fuel economy, surprising performance, quietness and refinement, we knew this little 1.0-litre engine would have to be a game changer,” said Bob Fascetti, vice-president, Ford Powertrain Engineering.