What's the news?
The introduction of the 152 registration in July saw Universal Honda, the Irish importer and distributor for the Japanese brand, achieve its best month for new car registrations to date in 2015. In total 354 new cars were registered in July bettering the 308 units in January, traditionally the busiest month for new registrations, and makes up for the month of June where just 9 new units went on the road.
This stronger July performance marks a 72.6 per cent increase over the previous July, with the Honda Civic continuing to account for half of all new registrations. The hatchback has long been a mainstay of the Honda range and appears to be growing in popularity with 79 per cent upshift in models hitting Irish roads in July 2015 compared with 2014. Performing even better is the larger Honda CR-V, which saw a 168.9 per cent increase in registrations over the same period.
Commenting on the company's 152 performance to date, Adrian Cole, Universal Honda Managing Director, said: "We are very pleased with the strength of our performance in the opening month of the 152-reg period. The results for Civic and CR-V have exceeded our expectations, and are testament to the quality and appeal of our updated cars. We have made major investments to expand our Dealer Network in recent years and it is through their commitment that these results have been achieved."
Anything else?
Year-to-date new Honda registrations are up 9.9 per cent over the first seven months of 2014. Despite the recent introduction of new Honda HR-V and Honda Jazz models these are won't start arriving in dealerships until September, which may lead some new buyers to hold off until 2016. Also seeing its introduction is the high-performance Honda Civic Type R, which has just had Irish pricing confirmed at €48,750.