Sales of new cars decrease by 10% in April

New car sales fell by almost 10% in April compared to the same month last year — while used car imports jumped nearly 30%.

According to figures from the CSO, there were 13,427 new private cars licensed for the first time in April — a decrease of 9.6% compared with the same month last year.

A total of 7,272 used (imported) private cars were licensed, a rise of 29.3% on the same month last year.

In the first four months of the year, a total of 74,180 new private cars were licensed — a drop of 10.9% compared with the same period last year.

The number of used (imported) private cars licensed increased by 52% compared with the same period in 2016.

Volkswagen (1,209) was the most popular make of new private cars licensed last month, followed by Nissan (1,192), Opel (1,126), Ford (1,086), and Renault (971).

Together these five makes represent just over 41% of all new private cars licensed last month.

Between January and April, two-thirds (66%) of new private cars licensed were diesel, while 96.3% of new private cars licensed in the same period were in the A/B CO2 emissions bands.

There was a 29.5% fall in the number of new goods vehicles licensed in April compared with the same period last year, bringing the total to 2,196.

The total number of new vehicles licensed during April 2017 was 16,710 compared with 19,144 during the same month in 2016, a decrease of 12.7%.

The CSO figures largely mirror those released by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry last week.

The society said this year is likely to be “unpredictable” as a result of Brexit.