So far this year, some 95,217 new cars have been sold, an increase of 30 percent on 2013 (73,454). This is the first time in five years that new car sales have reached 95,000.
The Commercial Vehicle market is even more positive, with light commercial/van sales up 51 percent (15,900) this year in comparison to 2013 (10,555), with the month of October (1,370) recording a strong sales increase up 79 percent compared with October last year (766).
Heavy Goods Vehicle (GV) registrations are also up 12 percent for the month of October and 23 percent year to date.Alan Nolan, Director General SIMI, (pictured) says: "The positive registration figures for all sectors is a welcome sign of recovery for our Industry, particularly the light commercial registrations indicate a more general recovery in the wider economy." He added that while the new car sales figures are encouraging, it should be remembered that they are still starting from a very low base. He said for sustainability, the new car registrations market needs to be operating at an annual level of 130,000, but these new figures show continued progress and that sales are now moving in the right direction.
Figures released by SIMI show that the top three selling car brands for October were Volkswagen, Toyota and Ford. The top three selling models were the VW Golf, Nissan Qashqai and Ford Focus. The top selling van was the Ford Transit.
