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The average age of an Irish car has been rising steadily since the late nineties, but the flood of imports, fuelled by the drop in the value of Sterling thanks to Brexit, has actually started to reverse that trend.
According to the vehicle history experts at Cartell.ie, the average age of the Irish vehicle fleet has fallen by 75 days so far this year. That's thanks primarily to the average age of imports falling by 112 days this year.
Actually, the average age of an imported car is still slightly higher, overall, than the average age of an original Irish-registered car - 9.02 years for an imported car, versus 8.62 years for 'native' models - but the flood of younger imports this year has skewed that data. That figure is now the youngest for an imported fleet since 2011, and the overall age of the private fleet in Ireland (native and imported) stands at 8.7 years (3,181 days), representing a decline of 80 days since January 2017.
Cartell.ie also examined the total number of imported cars now on our roads and found that it has reached an all-time high of 480,606 vehicles, out of a total national car fleet (combining native and imported cars) of 2,289,922.
John Byrne, Legal and Public Relations Manager, Cartell.ie, says: "The size of the private fleet in Ireland continues to grow but the age is declining: imports are reducing the age of the Irish fleet as buyers move up the years and bring in a car from the UK. Possibly buyers are importing newer vehicles without retiring older vehicles in the fleet - this may explain why the age is declining while the size is still increasing. The imported fleet now stands at nearly half a million vehicles. Buyers should be careful when importing a vehicle as it may carry a hidden history from another country - such as where the vehicle was previously written-off or still has finance outstanding on it, or was clocked."