132 is here and as expected, all vehicle registrations for June are significantly down on last year, as the anticipation of the new 132 plate in July impacted on sales. 

New car sales were down a massive 73.6% (-4,677 units), while Light Commercials (vans) were down 48.1% (-413 Units) and Heavy Commercials (trucks) were down 46.3% (-50 Units).

Alan Nolan, Director General of SIMI says: "The decline in June car sales comes as no surprise as people waited for the arrival of new 132 registration plate. As this is the first day of July, it is obviously very early to make any firm predictions, but out on the forecourts, dealers have reported a lot of interest from motorists in the build up to the new plate. Nearly all manufacturers and dealers have produced special offers for the introduction of the 132 plate, so it should be happy sunny days for car buyers in July."
On the same subject, new statistics from Motorcheck.ie show that the new car industry has suffered an unprecedented drop in sales of 73% for June 2013 when compared with June 2012.

This devastating result comes right before the introduction of the new 132
number plate bringing the total number of new cars registered for 2013 up to 52,978. That's 20% down on the 2012 total of 66,334 for the same period.

Commenting on the latest statistics Managing Director Shane Teskey said "The introduction of the 132 number plate from July 1st may have put some buyers off registering a car in June. The next week or so will be a very important period for an industry that's already in crisis".

Volkswagen maintain the top spot with 13% of sales, followed closely by
Toyota with 11% and Ford at 10%.

The Volkswagen Golf remains Ireland's most popular model this year with
2,673 (5.1% of the total market) units sold. The Nissan Qashqai is in second place with 2,397 (4.5%) units registered whilst the Ford Focus takes third position with 1,938 (3.7%) registrations.

Diesel engines remain popular with 73% of the total.

60% of all new cars registered were in Band A.

Used Imports Grow by 22%

However it isn't all bad news for the exchequer as the number of imported
second hand cars has grown by 41% in June and now totals 24,826 - an
increase of 22% for the year to date.

The most popular car to be imported second hand is the Ford Focus with 2,039 registrations followed by the Audi A4 (1,461) and the Volkswagen Passat (1,361).