Best July on record for new car registrations

So far this year, some 84,474 new cars have been sold, an increase of 30 percent on 2013 and 10,000 more cars than were register in the whole of last year.

According to SIMI, sales for July at 18,776 was the best July on record for vehicle registrations.

Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGB) registrations are also up 40 percent for July and 44 percent year to date, white Light Commercial Vehicle registrations (vans) were increased significantly by 97 percent in July and by 46 percent year to date, compared to last year.

Alan Nolan

Alan Nolan, Director General SIMI said "We have to be positive about these figures, which are even stronger than we expected. When SIMI proposed the introduction of the split registration system, we predicted that it would give consumers and businesses a better choice in buying their new car mid-year rather than during the busy first quarter.:

He said looking at the commercial vehicle and hire-drive numbers, 'it is clear that both retail and business customers see the benefits of the new system'.

He warned that the Industry still remains cautions, and is only at the beginning of a long recovery process, and that there are still challenges ahead, both in the availability of business finance and in the fragility of the market which, he said, could easily be upset by any negative decisions in the Budget, or instability in the economy.

"So the clear message to Government is not to do anything negative that could risk the additional €200 million collected this year and the potential for a further €150 million next year from new car sales."

He said the prize for the Exchequer in supporting this recovery 'will be the potential to collect €1 billion from new car sales in two years time and this should not be endangered'.