Longford car sales down slightly compared to last year

A total of 435 new cars have been registered in Longford so far in 2017, down 9% from this time last year, according to the last figures from the Society of Irish Motor Industry (SIMI). This is in keeping with a downward trend throughout Ireland where car registrations are down 10% on the same period last year.

Around the region, Leitrim has seen 382 new cars registered so far this year while Cavan has 1,012.  1255 new cars have been registered in Westmeath and 848 in Roscommon since the start of 2017.

SIMI’s figures show that new car registrations for the month of April were down -24% (7,865) compared to (10,381) April 2016. So far this year 93,205 new cars have been registered in Ireland.

The figures also show that the top selling car in Ireland for the month of April was the Skoda Octavia while the most popular colour was grey.  The five top selling brands for the year to date are: Toyota, Volkswagen, Ford, Hyundai and Nissan.  

SIMI Director General, Alan Nolan told longfordleader.ie: “From our recent SIMI/DoneDeal Quarterly Review, we commented that 2017 was proving to be unpredictable for the Motor Industry and the month of April appears to be reflecting this statement. Vehicle registrations for April show a decline in all sectors and across nearly all counties. While the economy continues to strengthen, consumers appears to have remained somewhat more cautious to date. That said the Industry is continuing to entice consumers with very strong offers to the degree that even with lower sterling values, as a result of Brexit virtually no new cars have been imported because of the value available here.”