Toyota is best selling car make so far this year, by a short head, but the Ford Focus is the best selling model writes Trish Whelan.
However, new car sales are down by 12 per cent for the year to date and 4 per cent down on August last year.
According to figures just released by SIMI, Toyota sold 9,381 units year-to-date, just three more units than Volkswagen on 9,378. Ford was next with 8,021, followed by Nissan, Renault, Hyundai, GM (Opel), Skoda, Audi and BMW in that order.
Top selling models, after Focus with 3,499 units, were Nissan Qashqai (3,194), VW Golf (3,157), Toyota Avensis (2,778), Toyota Yaris (2,301), Skoda Octavia (2,219), Ford Fiesta (2,035), VW Passat Saloon (1,982), Toyota Auris (1,812) and Renault Fluence (1,795).
The vast majority (74%) of cars sold this year so far were petrol, with 23 percent of buyers opting for petrol. Most were in Band A (39,666) while Band B accounted for 28,656 units sold. The best selling body type was the hatchback (32,756) followed by saloon (23,237), MPV (7,939), and Jeep (4,060). Some 967 sports coupe cars found owners this year, but convertibles accounted for only 132 sales and limosine enjoyed just two sales.
Silver/Aluminium is still the most favoured car colour but is closely followed by black, and grey.
While sales of commercial vehicles (vans) were up by 1 percent in August, they are down 3 per cent for the year.
