New figures released by the car sales website Carzone.ie have revealed that the Volkswagen Golf was the website's most viewed model in 2021. That was followed, respectively, by the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes E-Class.
Diesel not dead?
Interest in diesel cars has not totally collapsed the way it has in other markets such as the UK, with 31 per cent of motorists planning on buying a diesel - the same percentage as those looking to buy a petrol model. Indeed, diesel is still the most popular fuel option in Ireland.
The most searched-for diesel models were, in order, a trio of executive saloons, the BMW 5 Series, Mercedes E-Class and Audi A6. In contrast, those looking at petrol cars tended to search for smaller models, with the most popular being the Volkswagen Golf, Volkswagen Polo and Ford Fiesta.
Interest in EVs and hybrids
The last year has seen huge gains for battery-electric and hybrid models with, according to other recent reports from Carzone, a quarter of cars now searched for on the site being electric, up from one in twenty this time last year. The top three most searched-for electric cars in Ireland were the Nissan Leaf, Audi e-tron and Volkswagen ID.3.
BMW makes up the top three most searched-for plug-in hybrid models with the 5 Series, 3 Series and X5 SUV, while Toyota makes up the top three most searched-for petrol-electric hybrids with the Corolla, RAV4 and CH-R respectively.
Window shopping
Contrasting Carzone's figures with the list of best-selling models in Ireland, there does seem to be a bit of window-shopping going on with not a single one of the overall most searched-for cars corresponding to the Society of the Irish Motor Industry's (SIMI) list of the best-selling models in 2021. The best-selling cars in Ireland in 2021 were, in order: the Hyundai Tucson, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Yaris, Volkswagen Tiguan and Toyota CH-R.
While the Audi e-tron and Tesla Model S are both among the most searched-for electric cars, both are far down the list of best-sellers behind the Volkswagen ID.4 and ID.3, the Tesla Model 3 and Nissan Leaf.
The Porsche Panamera and 911 appear on the list of most viewed hybrid models and most viewed petrol models respectively, so there are clearly a few Lotto-win dream cars being planned.
Comment
Commenting on the figures, Carzone's audience manager, Karl Connolly said:
"This year we have seen several new models introduced to the market, but our data shows that car buyers are sticking to what they know when it comes to researching a car purchase. The most viewed cars on our platform have remained mostly unchanged from 2020. We have seen the most change in the EV category where the market continues to expand, and more models are made available. This follows the large rise in interest in EVs we have seen this year from Irish motorists, with a 109 per cent increase in EV advert views on Carzone in November 2021 versus the same period last year.