The Passat was the most popular model in the imports, with 3,455 registered. It was followed by the BMW 3 Series with 3,124 units, Audi's A4 with 2,530 and VW's Golf with 2,195.
In all, 46,045 imported cars were registered in 2009, compared to new car registrations of 55,578.
Those figures underline the warning made late last year by the chairman of the Irish Motoring Writers Association, Michael Moroney, that the Government 'needs to do something' about such imports, on both lost revenue and on safety grounds because some of the imports may have a chequered history.
The scrappage scheme introduced this month may already be making a difference, along with the substantial price cuts made by distributors in Ireland.
Although a 20-day snapshot is very short in the sales cycle for the year, it does seem that registration of imports is down substantially compared to new car registrations.
Up to last Thursday, according to figures compiled by Motorcheck.ie, 10,588 new cars were registered, compared to 2,041 imports or 16.2 percent of the total.
For the month of January last year, 5,798 imports were registered, or 26.8 percent of the total.
The VW Passat is still the most favoured import with 162 units registered so far this month, followed by the BMW 3 Series with 139 and the Audi A4 with 137. BB
