What's the news?
According to the latest national Motoring Report from Carzone.ie, the increasing cost of insurance is holding people back from buying cars, because they're afraid they can't afford the premiums. Some 54 per cent of respondents to a survey of 1,700 people said that the cost of insurance could become the biggest barrier to their purchase of a car, while 40 per cent said that they are unhappy with the cost of their insurance. Of those who said that they were satisfied with the cost of their premiums, a third said that they would still seek out a new insurer next year to try and bring their costs down.
Interestingly, when it comes to that other major motoring cost - tax - 28 per cent of people said that they did not fully understand the current tax band system, yet 83 per cent said that it was a major influence on what car they might buy. Perhaps unsurprisingly, 75 per cent of men claimed (that's claimed...) to fully understand the system, while only 61 per cent of women said that they did.
Car finance is also a point of confusion - 48 per cent of buyers said that they did not fully understand the finance packages on offer. Again, the men might be fooling themselves - 42 per cent say they do understand the finance packages, versus 31 per cent of women. Meanwhile the National Car Test (NCT) remains a bone of contention. Some 37 per cent feel that the test is unfair in some way, while a third of drivers say that they spend as much as €150 preparing their car for the test.
In terms of actual sales, Carzone.ie says that the market is remarkably buoyant. According to Cartell.ie, 1,125,794 used vehicle transactions were recorded last year, and 15 per cent of those buyers said that they were changing their car to try and reduce their overall costs. Another 13 per cent said that they were looking for a more reliable car, while 30 per cent said that they were upgrading to get more space to accommodate a growing family.
Buyers are becoming more savvy about what they buy too. Perhaps it's an indicator of a fractured, occasionally confusing market, but 45 per cent of buyers researched as many as three separate cars before deciding on which to buy, while 24 per cent expanded that search to five models. German car marques remain extremely popular amongst Irish motorists with Volkswagen topping the polls for most popular car marque searched for on Carzone.ie. Volkswagen was closely followed by BMW in second, Audi in third, then Toyota and Ford in fourth and fifth places respectively.
When it comes to the most popular model of car, the Volkswagen Golf tops the poll for the second successive year followed by the Ford Focus and Volkswagen Passat.
The colour black remains extremely popular amongst Irish motorists accounting for some 23 per cent of colour searches. White is next in line on 16 per cent followed by blue (six per cent) silver (five per cent) and red (five per cent). Fuel type is still a critical part of the buying process for Irish motorists too. The Carzone.ie Motoring Report shows that 78 per cent of searches in 2015 were for diesel models with 17 per cent of searches for petrol.
In fact, the report goes as far as to identify the most searched for car in Ireland in the past 12 months with a black 2012 Volkswagen Golf diesel the single most searched for vehicle.
The report also reveals where motorists are buying their cars from, with a large portion of Irish motorists (41 per cent) purchasing from franchise dealers with a further 34 per cent buying from independent dealers and 15 per cent buying their car online.
We do seem to be wary of depreciation though. While 50 per cent of buyers said that they intend to change their car in the next year, only 20 per cent said that they were confident of getting a decent resale price for their current car. Commenting on the findings, Warren Cray, General Manager of Carzone.ie said, "In this our sixth edition of the Carzone.ie Motoring Report we have gone deeper again to research views and gauge sentiment amongst Irish motorists. What is certainly clear from the research is that consumer confidence is continuing to rise and more and more vehicles are changing hands both through new car registrations and used car sales."
"The report is also highlighting the financial concerns of motorists in relation to fuel costs, road tax, car insurance and NCT costs. Meanwhile the 111 million searches carried out on Carzone.ie in 2015 show us specifically what motorists are looking for right down to make, model, colour, year, fuel preference and more. Being able to access this level of insight and understanding what consumers want can only be positive for the motor industry."