New car sales up 1.5% in January

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Friday, February 03, 2012

New car sales figures for January show an increase of 1.5% on last year, it was revealed today.

There were 21,313 new cars sold last month, an increase of 314 on January 2011 (20,999). 3,057 of which were bought under the Government Scrappage Scheme which ended last June.

"Despite the strong start we are still fairly cautious about the outlook for the year, predicting a fall of around 15% in new car sales for the full year which would deliver a market in the region of 76,000 new car sales for 2012," said Suzanne Sheridan of the SIMI (Society of the Irish Motor Industry).

"Speaking to garages on a daily basis, it's clear that footfall is down on last January and of course, some 16,000 cars were sold on scrappage last year which we don't have this year," she added.

"That said, we have to be positive about the start and the Commercial Vehicle Sector has also started well with *HGV (64% up) and LCV (17%) sales both up on last year."