It appears that Toyota Ireland Managing Director David Shannon has launched a scathing attack on rivals who use the practice of pre-registering cars as a way to boost sales figures.
Pre-registration - the practice of registering vehicles without having a customer for the vehicle - is primarily used by Irish importers and distributors to meet sales targets and claim the lucrative bonuses that go with them but it does have the knock on effect of distorting a brand's market share.
"In terms of the market we do notice an increasing level of 'pre-registered' vehicles," said Mr Shannon. "The practise of relying on it for a significant proportion of a brand's sales is unhealthy and ultimately will negatively affect the residual value of brands subjected to it... It is not in anybody's long term interest, distributors, dealers or, most importantly, the customer to distort it (the market) by inflating short term sales of particular models."
Mr Shannon does not name any individual brands, but to us his comments seem to be directed towards Volkswagen, which over the past six months has made big inroads into claiming the coveted top-spot in the Irish sales charts - a position Toyota has held for much of the past decade. The latest figures, released by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry, reveal that, until the end of June this year, only 245 registrations separate the two motoring giants.
Mr Shannon was delighted that Toyota remain top of the charts saying "It is very gratifying for Toyota Ireland to maintain the Number 1 position in the Irish car market for the first 6 months of the year", but are there hints that he realises it might not always be that way? "We (Toyota Ireland) have long maintained that being Number 1 is not an end in itself and should never be seen as such."
Volkswagen Ireland declined to comment on Toyota's release.