SIMI President expects 85,000 new car sales this year

SIMI President Paul Linders said at yesterday's First Quarter Motor Industry Review for 2014 organised by The Society of the Irish Motor Industry in association with DoneDeal, that dealers and the Motor Industry as a whole are optimistic about the improvement in the market.

He said "We are getting more enquiries in our showrooms and sales are obviously well up from the same quarter last year, but it must be small steps.

"This year, we should get to 85,000 new car sales and we hope to grow this steadily by 10,000 per year with a possible projection of 120,000 new car sales in 2017. Every additional 10,000 cars sold 'will generate €82 million for the Exchequer and support an extra 1,300 jobs which would lead to over 5,000 new jobs by 2017."

The publication of this report brings together data from both SIMI and DoneDeal for the first time, giving a comprehensive overview of both the private and trade motoring market in the country.

Cathal Cremen, Commercial Manager of DoneDeal's Motor section said this Report 'is set to become one of the most important references and economic indicators for the motoring industry here'. "DoneDeal is providing data that gives a true reflection of the rapidly growing online motoring market in Ireland. The value of private goods sold in our Motor Section increased by over €30 million in Q1, 2014 to €280 million, with over 60,000 private cars sold in this period."