Number of new vehicles licensed jumps almost 10% on last year

ALMOST 22,000 new vehicles hit Irish roads last month, an increase of almost 10% on last year, new figures revealed yesterday.

The figures show the total number of new vehicles licensed during July was 21,863, up 9.4% on 2006. The number of new private cars bought rose to 15,745 in July, with Toyota, Ford and Volkswagen the bestselling manufacturers — making up more than a third of vehicles licensed.

Between January and July more than 200,000 new vehicles were snapped up, including 154,718 new cars.

The Central Statistics Office revealed the amount of new cars rose in July by 273 from June, and was up 863 on the same time last year.

The highest number of new private cars licensed, classified by make, were Toyota 2,330, followed by Ford 2,086, Volkswagen 1,705, Opel 1,535, Nissan 1,433 and Peugeot 807.

Meanwhile, new motorcycles licensed, classified by make, were Honda 75 (21.7%), Suzuki 67 (19.4%), Yamaha 66 (19.1%) and Harley Davidson 29 (8.4%).

The quantity of second-hand cars imported also rose to 5,227, up 55 on last month and an increase of 728 on July 2006.

Toyota was again the most popular make, followed by Volkswagen and BMW.

The licensing figures refer to vehicles taxed for road use only and are classified by taxation class.