Figures just released for the month of September show a rise in the number of car registrations of 28 per cent when compared with the same period in 2012. This may seem like a big jump, but much of this is due to the new bi-annual registration system that came into effect this year. In fact, SIMI claims that to date, 2013 has been the second worst year for new car sales since the current recession began, with 2009 (which saw just 59,000 new car registrations) being the lowest.
These figures have given SIMI further reason to once again push its proposed 'Swappage Scheme', which it unveiled recently. Under this plan, consumers that are trading in a car that is six or more years old would receive a €2,000 VRT refund on their new car purchase. Not only will this boost a still struggling industry, SIMI claims that it could help to create up to 2,200 additional jobs, which could be worth an extra €50 million to the Exchequer. And despite offering consumers a VRT refund, the projected increase in sales could actually see up to €80 million in additional VRT and VAT take being contributed to the government coffers.
As for September itself, Volkswagen had the highest number of vehicle registrations followed by BMW and Toyota. The car with the highest number of new registrations was the BMW 5 Series, while the Volkswagen Golf and SEAT Leon ranked in second and third places respectively. The overall breakdown of petrol versus diesel still shows a strong preference for diesel, with 73 per cent of all sales, though we predict that this will soon start to swing back the other way as more manufacturers release better and increasingly fuel efficient petrol engines.