Car sales down 16% despite July VRT rules

DESPITE a rise in car registrations in July following the introduction of new VRT rules, the number of new cars bought in the seven months of the year was more than 16% behind the same period last year.

According to the Central Statistics Office report there were 16,175 new private cars registered in July compared with 15,738 in July 2007.

There was also an increase in the total number of all vehicles registered in the month, from 29,721 in 2007 to 30,245 in 2008.

One of the biggest increases was in the second-hand car market, up 1,882, or 36%, in the number registered for the first time in July 2008 compared with a year earlier.

However, when examining new private cars registrations for the first seven months of this year, the total, 130,744, still lags far behind the corresponding period last year when there were 154,612, a 15.4% drop.

And the figure for all vehicles registered in the first seven months of the year has gone from 257,3001 in 2007 to 224,422 in 2008.

The number of new goods vehicles licensed in July showed a particularly high drop of 44% compared with July last year.

A CO2 emission rating had been provided for 13,576 of the new private cars registered. Of those, only 11% were in the lowest emission band A.

The majority (48%) were in the next best band for emissions, band B. There were 27% in C and the remaining 14% were in the worst CO2 emissions bands, D, E, F and G.

There were also more diesel (8,544) than petrol cars (7,163) cars registered in July, a significant reversal of the normal trend — there were 85,577 petrol cars registered in the first seven months of the year as against 41,540 diesel cars — that again can be attributed to the changes in VRT and road tax changes

There were 223 petrol/electric cars registered, as well as 244 petrol/ethanol cars.

Toyota had the highest number of cars registered for the first time in July, 2,046 new and 950 second-hand.

It was followed by Ford and Volkwagen.

Surprisingly, BMW was the next highest registered, beating both Nissan and Opel.

There were 1,396 new and 701 second BMWs registered for the first time, three times the number of Mercedes cars, which are historically in the same price bracket.

Despite the low level of take-up of new cars in spite of the VRT changes, the Society of the Irish Motor Industry has said it believes the new rules on carbon emissions are a success.

It said the average new car registered in July 2008 emits 21.4g/km less CO2 than those registered in 2007, and the VRT changes have resulted in better value for money for the consumer, making the outlook for the coming year very positive.