The first 5 days of trading in 2009 has seen vehicle registrations in the state fall when compared to the same period in 2008. There were only 9,390 vehicles registered in the first week of January 2009 compared to 26,029 for the same week in 2008 representing a massive 64% drop. The top seller so far in 2009 is the Nissan Qashqai 1.5 Diesel, of which 377 were sold, however, in the same period last year the Ford Focus 1.4 petrol topped the list with 714 units sold.

This terrible start to the New Year comes as little surprise given that in 2008 there were 285,514 vehicles registered in the state compared to 338,566 in 2007 a drop of 16% year to year. Even more worrying for the Irish Motor Industry is that imports are more or less steady. In 2007 there were 89,310 vehicles imported while the figure rose if only marginally by 1% to 90,736 in 2008. However by the virtue of the fact that imports rose in 2008 and total vehicles registered fell, it is clear that the ratio of total vehicles registered to imports has fallen from 3.79:1 in 2007 to 3.14:1 in 2008. Instead of Irish consumers buying new vehicles in the state, it seems like they opted for a used import.

However, it.s not all doom and gloom for Irish motorists, there is some good news in these statistics, from an environmental perspective, it seems that the Irish consumer has become more CO2 conscious. For the first week of 2008, 9 out of the top 10 vehicles registered were petrol models whereas in 2009, only 2 out of the top 10 vehicles registered were petrol models. The switch to diesel powered vehicles has been driven by the government.s new tax and VRT regime introduced in July 2008. The rational being that the advancement in diesel technology has allowed for vehicles of similar power to their petrol counterparts omit less CO2 per kilometre driven. It is hoped that this switch to diesel will reduce Ireland.s greenhouse gas emissions as CO2 is a contributor to the greenhouse effect.

Top 10 registered vehicles in the first week of 2009

Top 10 registered vehicles in the first week of 2008

-ENDS-