A buoyant January market has put Ireland firmly on course for 100,000 new car and commercial vehicle sales in 2014, according to figures released by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI).
The combined new vehicle market for January 2014 was 26,078 units, with the car market up by 33 percent on last year and the commercial sector up by 40 percent. A total of 22,913 new cars were registered in January while 3,165 new commercial vehicles were sold.
In a very tight market where only 320 units separate the top three brands, Ford is celebrating as the only manufacturer to have two models - Focus and Fiesta - in the top 5 selling cars. In addition, the Ford Transit was the best-selling commercial vehicle range. With sales of 603 units, Ford was the overall CV market leader for January - a feat the company has achieved for 24 of the last 25 years - ahead of VW (522 units) and Renault (259 units). Ford saw its combined vehicle volume (cars and CVs) grow by 27 percent during the month.
"This is the first time in a number of years that we've had such a strong start to the year and an outlook for the year in the region of 100,000 vehicle sales," said Ford Ireland chief Eddie Murphy. "The car industry has gone through a lot of pain but I think we can be cautiously optimistic that a corner has now been turned.
"We always say the commercial vehicle market is a good indicator of how the wider business sector is performing, so in that context an increase in sales of 40% tells a very positive story," Mr Murphy went on. "Businesses, especially SMEs, are investing in their fleets and that's a great sign.
"January was a good month for Ford with Focus, Fiesta and Transit all performing strongly for us, now we have to push on for the remainder of the year," he added.
The top selling cars in January 2014 were:
1. VW Golf 1,147
2. Toyota Corolla 872
3. Ford Focus 861
4. Hyundai IX35 773
5. Ford Fiesta 746
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Eddie Murphy, Chairman & MD of Ford of Ireland
