Source: CSO

Irish New Car Sales: The CSO said today that there were 17,587 new private cars licensed in April, 2008, compared with 21,427 in April, 2007, a decrease of 17.9%.

First licensing of second-hand* private cars increased by 270 (5.2%) on the same month last year.

The number of new goods vehicles licensed was 4,047 in April 2008, compared with 4,812 in the corresponding month last year, a decrease of 15.9%.

The vehicle licensing figures also showed that:

• The total number of all vehicles licensed in April decreased by 11% when compared with the same month in 2007.
• The total number of all new vehicles licensed during April was 23,712 compared with 28,086 during the same month in 2007 – a decrease of 15.6%.
• Of the 23,712 new vehicles licensed for the first time in April, there were 139 vehicles fuelled by petrol and electric while petrol and ethanol accounted for 404.
• The highest number of new private cars licensed in April, classified by make were Ford (2,293) followed by Toyota (2,266), Volkswagen (2,128),Nissan (1,962),Opel (1,556) and Audi (713).

The licensing figures refer to vehicles taxed for road use only and are classified by taxation class.

*The term ‘second-hand’ refers to imported used vehicles