July car sales soar 163% as 132 plate brings out buyers

The new biannual car registration scheme has been hailed as a major success as new car sales soared by 163% in July compared to the same month last year.

The introduction of the 132 plate to signal cars sold in the second half of the current year, which came into effect on Jul 1, resulted in sales of 11,640 new vehicles last month, according to the Society of the Irish Motor Industry. In contrast, just 4,424 new models were sold in Jul 2012.

Industry experts had predicted that the change in the registration system could see more than 6,000 cars being sold in July as the extra “2” digit is added for the first time to the registration plate. The plate will change to “141” next January.