Some good news for the beleaguered motor industry this week with the announcement from SIMI (Society of the Irish Motor Industry) that car sales for January were up 1.5 per cent over the same period last year.
In total 21,313 new cars were sold in January and while this is only 314 more than in 2011 the sales were achieved without the added bonus of the Government Scrappage Scheme, which ended last June. With 1,281 units the Ford Focus was the most popular car for the tenth year running with Toyota the best-selling brand having clocked up 3,434 sales.
"Speaking to garages on a daily basis, it's clear that footfall is down on last January and of course, some 16,000 cars were sold on Scrappage last year which we don't have this year," said Alan Nolan Director General of SIMI. "That said, we have to be positive about the start and the Commercial Vehicle Sector has also started well with Heavy Goods Vehicle (64% up) and Light Commercial Vehicle (17%) sales both up on last year."
January is a crucial month for the Irish motor industry with as much as 50 per cent of new car sales occurring in the first quarter of the year. Despite the increase SIMI is remaining cautious about the forecast for the rest of the year. In fact it is "predicting a fall of around 15% in new car sales for the full year which would deliver a market in the region of 76,000 new car sales for 2012."