Pre-registering 'a concern'

The boss of Ireland's biggest selling car brand has hit out at a motor trade practice of 'pre-registering', which he says is increasing, writes Brian Byrne.

The system involves registering vehicles towards the end of a month, which have not actually been sold to an identified buyer, in order to boost a brand’s market share, but Toyota Ireland's MD Dave Shannon says it's now becoming a matter for 'concern'.

"Relying on it for a significant proportion of a brand’s sales is unhealthy and ultimately will negatively effect the residual value of brands subjected to it," he said in a commentary on the performance of the Irish car market in the first six months of the year.

"While the short term market is difficult, down 13.5 percent on the first six months of last year, it is not in anybody’s long term interest, distributors, dealers or, most importantly, the customer to distort it by inflating short term sales of particular models."

Figures released by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry yesterday show Toyota, Volkswagen and Ford as the top three brands, and Ford's Focus, Nissan's Qashqai and Volkswagen's Golf as the top three car model registrations for the first half of 2012.