New Year car sales surge as registrations boosted by 19%

CAR sales started strongly in 2005 with registrations in January soaring 19% on last year.

January is the busiest month of the year for car sales and this was the strongest start to the year since the industry’s heyday in 2000 when buyers flocked to forecourts in record numbers to get their hands on a double-O registration to mark the new millennium.

Yesterday’s figures, released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), confirmed Toyota’s position at the top of the new car table, as the Japanese maker of the Avensis and Yaris accounted for over 3,100 new registrations, an increase of 15% on January 2004. Ford was in second place on the grid after a healthy 22% hike in registrations, which totalled almost 2,500. There was also good news for Volkswagen, which overtook Nissan and Renault to land third place.

The German giant’s new registrations soared 45% to almost 1,700. Nissan and Renault completed the top five with an extra 1,500 and 1,300 new cars on the road respectively. Nissan saw a 10% rise but Renault registrations slid 8% on January, 2004. Peugeot and Opel also had strong starts to the year and broke through the 1,000 barrier.

The CSO figures, which are based on car tax information from the country’s city and county councils, largely tracked the figures published by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), the group representing car dealers, last month. SIMI, whose research covers vehicle registrations with the Revenue Commissioners, found the number of new cars rose 18% to almost 33,000 in January. The difference between the CSO and SIMI figures is due to a time lag between new cars registered with Revenue and licensed for the first time through local authorities.

SIMI chief executive Cyril McHugh said the improved sales figures reflected greater consumer confidence. The fall-off in sales since 2000 was down to economic uncertainty and concerns over job security that affected spending habits, he said. Mr McHugh said trends in sales for February were also positive.

The ups and downs

Alfa Romeo 45: -29%

Audi 433: +8%

BMW 613: +19%

Citroen 461: +50%

Fiat 226: -45%

Ford 2,482: +22%

Honda 386: +6%

Hyundai 790: +29%

Land Rover 118: -29%

Mazda 633: same

Mercedes-Benz 677: -6%

MG/Rover 93: -27%

Mitsubishi 299: same

Nissan 1,514: +10%

Opel 1,110: +33%

Peugeot 1,253: +70%

Renault 1,306: -8%

Saab 136: +48%

Seat 347: no change

Skoda 613: +42%

Suzuki 498: +28%

Toyota 3,126: +15%

Volkswagen 1,681: +45%

Volvo 287: +78%

*Comparison with January 2004.