New car sales up 33.5% so far this year

The number of new cars taxed for the first time during the first three months of this year is up 33.5 per cent on the same period last year. By the end of March there were 52,543 new private cars taxed for the first time, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office. In March there were 17,054 new cars taxed for the first time, up 48.5 per cent on the same month last year.

According to the CSO the most popular brands so far this year are Volkswagen with 12 per cent, Toyota with 11.5 per cent, Ford with 10 per cent and Nissan with 9.6 per cent. At the premium end of the market Audi had 2,162 new cars taxed for the first time, ahead of BMW with 1,822 and Mercedes-Benz with 1,223.

There were 13,119 imported cars on the road for the first time during the first quarter, with Ford, Volkswagen, Audi and British brand Vauxhall (a sister brand to Opel) being the most popular used import brands.

Separately the number of new goods vehicles on the road is up by 54.2 per cent so far this year. Always judged as a bellwether for economic activity there were 7,100 new goods vehicles taxed for the first time in the first quarter of 2015 compared to 4,603 in the same period of 2014 and 3,050 in 2013.

The CSO figures differ from the new car registrations figures published earlier this month. These showed that 64,691 new cars were registered in the first quarter, a rise of 30 per cent. The difference is largely attributed to the fact that a car cannot leave the dealership without a registration but motor tax is the responsibility of the motorist and there is often a time lag between the registration and the recording of the new car being taxed. It can also be caused by dealers registering new cars to meet sales targets even though they have not been sold to private customers yet and so are not being taxed. These are referred to in the trade as "pre-registration" or "pre-reg" vehicles and are often sold at a discount. They were common sights on forecourts during the recession and offered good deals to savvy car buyers.