What's the news?
The annual 123.ie Irish Car Review has surveyed nigh on 4,000 drivers across the country and come up with some surprising findings - such as a fear of autonomous cars, a dislike of Nissan's styling and majority support for a 30km/h speed limit in Dublin.
There's some tough reading for Volkswagen Group brands, though, because - while Audi might be the most desirable marque to Irish drivers - SEAT and Skoda are thought to have a 'poor reputation' and 'bad resale value'.
Drilling down into some of the broader themes before we come to brand preferences and trends, a total of 68 per cent back the 30km/h limit that Dublin City Council voted in December to phase in throughout 2017, while 62 per cent say they would 'feel frightened' in a self-driving car - and a further 51 per cent would not feel safe sharing the road with a vehicle that wasn't fully under the control of the human driver.
Almost 60 per cent of drivers say Bluetooth is the most important technical feature in a car, followed by adaptive cruise control (54 per cent) and then a digital dashboard (48 per cent). Meanwhile, on the outside of the car, white is not a popular colour: 30 per cent of respondents said it was their least popular choice, followed by maroon (17 per cent). At the other end of the colour chart, black is top choice (29 per cent), silver is second (22 per cent) and then blue or navy (14 per cent) rounds out the podium. One in ten people would choose a red car.
Final point on the general themes, then, and despite what looks like an impending backlash against diesel, we just can't be persuaded to switch back to petrol motors. With more than a third of drivers planning to change their cars this year, with 64 per cent going down the used car route to do so, 66 per cent of all respondents said they will buy a diesel next time around, due to the tax breaks afforded to the fuel here in Ireland. In fact, nearly everyone questioned (92 per cent) said motor tax rate is the most important factor in deciding which engine type to buy.
So, onto the actual car brands. Audi is the car most drivers in Ireland would choose if money were no object, followed by (surprise, surprise...) BMW and then Mercedes - anyone spot a theme, here? Ten per cent would choose a Land Rover and 7.5 per cent opted for an Aston Martin.
Moving away from the dream, though, and it's bad news for Renault: it was selected as the most disliked of the mainstream car brands sold in Ireland, with 26 per cent saying it is the marque they would least consider buying. Kia and SEAT were in joint second, with 12 per cent of respondents each shunning them. At the other end, Toyota (3 per cent) and Hyundai, Ford and Volkswagen (4 per cent) seem to meet more approval.
When asked why various brands were undesirable, four categories saw the following results: for poor reputation, Renault polled 65 per cent, SEAT 48 per cent and Skoda 45 per cent; for bad resale value, SEAT recorded 46 per cent, Kia 45 per cent and Skoda 39 per cent; for a bad personal experience, Ford was the worst with 41 per cent, followed by Opel (36 per cent) and Hyundai (28 per cent); and for unattractive styling, Nissan received the unwanted accolade of being ugly, according to 56 per cent of those surveyed, with Kia (47 per cent) and Skoda (44 per cent) close behind.
While Audi was considered to be costly to buy and maintain, its high reliability rating lead to a high satisfaction score among owners, with the other two German premium brands performing similarly well. Weirdly, given its poor showing elsewhere in the survey, Skoda was the second-highest marque for brand loyalty among owners (87 per cent of respondents), behind Audi and above Mercedes and Toyota (both 80 per cent).
Anything else?
A total of 60 per cent of the 3,999 car owners in Ireland surveyed online in January said they recognised the value offered by UK imports, but only 3.6 per cent of those looking to change their car this year will actually consider one - most (75 per cent) will go through a dealership and nearly 20 per cent will go for a private purchase. Padraig O'Neill, head of marketing at car insurance firm 123.ie, said: "While the value offered by a UK important is very tempting, we can assume from the survey that it's also a hassle and that dealerships offer an easier, more direct option for car buyers."
The next phase of the survey results, due to be released later this month, will identify the most annoying habits of other drivers in Ireland and who the public thinks are better drivers: men or women.