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Car sales image via Shutterstock

Slight increase in new car sales in March

In total, 17,600 cars were sold last month though sales of goods vehicles were down.

NEW FIGURES FROM the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that there were 10,596 new private cars sold in March 2013, a slight increase of 0.1 per cent on the same month last year.

The  number of new goods vehicles licensed last month was 1,057, down 8.5 per cent from March 2012. The number of tractors sold fell from 187 in March last year to 156 last month.

In total, 17,600 cars were sold last month, an increase of 2.5 per cent on last year.

The total number of new vehicles licensed in March was 12,452 and the total number of used private cars was 4,113 which is an increase of 12.9 per cent.

In March 2013, 29.1 per cent of the new cars sold were petrol and just over 70 per cent were diesel. The most popular make was Volswagen followed by Nissan, Toyota and Ford.

These figures refer to vehicles taxed for road use only.

Related: Car sales down 14 per cent in first quarter>
Read: 12 per cent fall in new car sales in February>

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12 Comments
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    Mute The Almighty
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    Apr 8th 2013, 12:51 PM

    Absolutely nuts to buy a new car in this country…complete rip off.

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    Mute Brian Guilfoyle
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    Apr 8th 2013, 12:31 PM

    Whereas sales on Adverts and DoneDeal are on the rise… Because nobody wants the silly expense of a new car!

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    Mute Michael O'Reilly
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    Apr 8th 2013, 12:25 PM

    Sales of goods vehicles down – less business going on !!!

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    Mute Isaac Hunt
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    Apr 8th 2013, 12:15 PM

    0.1 % are you high on crack Michelle?

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    Mute Brendan Harlowe
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    Apr 8th 2013, 12:22 PM

    0.1 is always better than none!

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    Mute Little Jim
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    Apr 8th 2013, 12:56 PM

    Jacking up on the smack again, is she!

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Apr 8th 2013, 1:50 PM

    Ah here!

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    Mute michael murphy
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    Apr 8th 2013, 1:01 PM

    Distributors can very easily distort new car sales figures as they simply pre register lots of new cars which will appear in the stats for new car sales,but are not in fact genuine stats for new cars sold to normal customers.they are shipped off to car rental companies,sold to dealers at reduced rates etc..if anything,it destroys residual values for those normal buying customers who bought a new car.very misleading new car sales figures..on paper yes, they are registered as new cars,but lots are pre registered to bring up the numbers.new car sales are shocking right now.

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    Mute bob®
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    Apr 8th 2013, 12:29 PM

    Slight dis-interest in car sales for Last month.down about 50% from .05% from Last year.

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    Mute rodrigo detriano
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    Apr 8th 2013, 5:08 PM

    I bought a second hand car in the UK. Paid the VRT and still saved myself at least €2000. Am I included in these figures, I wonder?

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    Mute R Neuville
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    Apr 8th 2013, 9:52 PM

    131 & 132 are not “Green Jersey” – whisper ….. we dont make cars in Ireland!

    Artificial tax bias by Gov that promotes new car purchase is daft!
    Borrowing money to purchase a new car is even Dafter!

    ———————————————————————
    €4.5 bn per annum sent out of our economy for new cars … a lot of local jobs in that.
    Enterprise Ireland would die for a jobs injection of €4.5 bn.

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    Mute Shane Freedom
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    Apr 8th 2013, 9:21 PM

    Good for the people who have thousands to spend on new cars. There is no recession for some.

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