New car sales are down on last year

Official statistics released by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) show that new car registrations for the month of March were -7.49% (19,916) compared to (21,529) March 2016, while new cars registrations year to date are down -8.28% (75,967 ) on the same period last year (82,824).

Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV) show an -8.41% (3,116) decrease on March 2016 (3,402) and year to date are -10.66% (13,414).

Heavy Commercial Vehicles (HGV) are also -3.49% for the month of March (304) compared to the same month last year (315) and is -2.74% year to date.

Commenting on the figures SIMI Director General, Alan Nolan said: ”We have previously indicated that the extent of the apparent fall in registrations over recent weeks were at least in part a question of timing, as in 2016 Easter had fallen in March with the result that the seasonal registration of Hire-drive fleets was always going to be later this year.

“With these starting to come through in the last few days of the month we have seen the figures start to improve but clearly the trend is indicating a reduction on last year’s market.”

Although the Irish economy is flying at the moment the car market also requires positive consumer sentiment, which peaked in the early part of 2016, but has, according to the ESRI, been edging slightly lower, in a ‘one step forward two steps back’ process since then.

The ESRI suggest that the economic upswing in 2016 may have overpromised and under-delivered relative to consumer expectations; things have stopped getting worse but consumers may not have seen a clear improvement in ther own circumstances.