Ireland LV Sales Turn Over New Leaf in September

Ireland’s new-car sales continue their slow crawl back from the abyss with September deliveries jumping 27.8% to 3,175 units, but the market remained down 6.5% year-to-date to 71,717.

Society of the Irish Motor Industry Director General Alan Nolan says market conditions this year have been very difficult as Ireland still battles to come back from its worst-ever financial crisis.

The introduction of the new midyear-designated registration plate in July was the one bright spot, cutting the year-on-year sales slide from 15% down at the end of May to 7% down at the end of September.

“The new dual-registration-plate system helped to make the most of the very low retail market this year and will continue to benefit the industry and consumers in the future,” Nolan says in a statement.

“However, there is no concealing the fact that 2013 has been the second-worst year since the recession started. After 2009, with 59,000 new-car registrations, this has actually been the worst year since 1993.”

Volkswagen was Ireland’s top-selling brand in September, up 17.1% to 377 units, ahead of BMW, up 61.1% to 364, and Toyota, ahead 34.6% to 315.

New-model deliveries were paced by the BMW 5-Series, up 457.5% to 223 units, ahead of the VW Golf, up 60.3% to 125 and the SEAT Leon, up 1,383.3% to 89 (from prior-year’s six), just ahead of the Ford Focus, down 5.4% to 88.

VW’s Golf led year-to-date sales, up 7.8% to 3,475 units, followed by the Nissan Qashqai, down 10.6% to 2,911. They were followed by the Ford duo of the Focus, down 23.4% to 2,757, and Fiesta, up 11.4% to 2,328.

After nine months, the VW brand was atop the new-car market with deliveries down 7% to 9,090 units. Toyota followed, off 22.4% to 7,467 but ahead of Ford, which fell 11.3% to 7,337.

The light-commercial-vehicle market saw September sales climb 21.8% to 821 units. VW, up 20.8% to 180 units, edged out longtime segment leader Ford, which jumped 54.3% to 179. Renault was a close third, up 6.1% to 174.

LCVs fared better year-to-date, down just 0.5% to 9,867 units. Ford topped the segment after nine months, up 7.9% to 2,263, ahead of VW, which fell 10.2% to 1,908. Renault ranked third, down 12.1% to 1,015.

The Ford Transit was Ireland’s most popular LCV after nine months with deliveries up 9.3% to 1,227 units. The nearest challenger was the VW Caddy, off 17.4% to 1,176.