Boom in second-hand car sales

Sales of used cars were up by 58.9% in 2004 over 2003, according to figures released today by the Central Statistics Office.

In December alone, there was an increase of 80.6% in first licensing of second-hand cars.

New car licences were up too, though by a far smaller margin - there were 2,033 new private cars licensed in December, 2004 compared with 2,012 in December, 2003, an increase of 1%.

In the year 2004, there were 149,697 new private cars licensed, an increase of 4.7% on 2003.

First licensing of second-hand private cars increased by 984 on the same month last year and increased by 7,932 (58.9%) in the year 2004 when compared with 2003.

New goods vehicles licensed increased by 48 (4.4%) in December, 2004 when compared with December 2003, and increased by 640 (2.1%) in the year 2004 by comparison with 2003.

In the year 2004, the total number of all vehicles licensed was 234,964 compared with 217,616 in the year 2003, an increase of 8%.

The highest number of new private cars licensed in December, classified by make are Toyota (283) followed by Volkswagen (237), Ford (176), Opel (145) and Nissan (140).