What's the news?
Car sales have nudged just above the 100,000 mark as we closed June and entered the busy 162 July registration period. According to figures released by the Society of the Irish Car Industry, new car registrations for the first half of 2016 were 23 per cent up on the same period in 2015, hitting 101,338 units, ahead of 2015's 82,337 at the same point.
Vans and light commercial sales were also up, albeit by a less impressive nine per cent to 867 sales, while HGVs saw an overall rise of 42 per cent year to date, in spite of suffering a 29 per cent fall in sales in June.
The figures will make for reassuring reading for Volkswagen, which has held on to the top selling brand spot that it recaptured last month. Toyota is in second place, with Hyundai in third, Ford in fourth and Nissan in fifth.
The Hyundai Tuscon is still the best-selling car so far this year, still selling significantly ahead of the Volkswagen Golf. The Ford Focus was in third place, followed by the Skoda Octavia and Nissan Qashqai.
Toyota claimed the top-selling model for June, which was the Yaris, while Ford, which claims to have sold a combined 15,006 cars and vans so far this year, says that it holds the lead in the combined sales category. "We are delighted to be at the top of the sales charts at this point as we head into the important July sales period when we welcome the new 162 registration"' said Ciarán McMahon, Chairman and Managing Director of Ford Ireland. "With the continued upward trend in car sales and, in particular, the stronger growth in commercial vehicle sales, we are very hopeful that Ford will see out the year as the top-selling brand in Ireland for the combined market of cars and vans."
Commenting on the figures SIMI Director General Alan Nolan said "At the start of the year we predicted that this year's registration numbers should reach 150,000 for the first time since 2008 and these figures keep us on track to deliver that. From today, of course, the focus turns to the 162 registration period. This year promises to be the first normal year of registrations since the recession and with the range of attractive offers available across all brands we are confident that 162 will also deliver in the coming months."
Needless to say, all of these figures will have been thus far unaffected by the rumbling effects of Brexit and the UK's decision to leave the EU. It will be interesting to see if, given the dire predictions for the economy, Irish consumers and car buyers retain their enthusiasm and their free-spending habits through July and the rest of the year.