Irish Sales Slide ‛Unsustainable,’ SIMI Official Says

The average age of the Irish vehicle fleet continues to climb as new-car sales continue their steady decline.

Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders data shows April sales fell 9.5% year-on-year to 6,121 units.

Volkswagen was the country’s top seller with 852 units, down 2.7% from like-2012, while traditional pacesetter Toyota plunged 30.6% to 593 and Ford narrowed the gap with a 16.8% increase to 507.

The result lowered year-to-date sales 13.3% to 45,581 units. VW led with 5,676, down 13% but ahead of Toyota, tumbling 29.7% to 4,742, and Ford, off 20.8% to 4,330. Fourth-place Hyundai bucked the trend, rising 12% to 3,688.

Among the 10 best-selling brands through the year’s first four months, only eighth-place Audi, up 3.8% to 2,404 units, and 10th-place Kia, up 7% to 2,132, joined Hyundai in showing positive results.

The VW Golf is Ireland’s top-selling car so far this year, with deliveries increasing 6.8% to 2,361 units. Nissan’s Qashqai was next, down 11.3% to 2,146, followed by Ford’s Focus, skidding 29.4% to 1,725.

“This is unsustainable,” SIMI Director General Alan Nolan says in a statement. “With consumer confidence and spending still showing no real signs of recovering anytime soon…this has impacted on the new-car market.”

Nolan says the good news for prospective new-car buyers is that average prices have fallen to €24,483 ($32,303), some €2,621 ($3,458) less than 2007. “The average price of a new car today is 10% cheaper than in 2007.”

Light-commercial-vehicle sales, often a barometer of business activity in Ireland, rose for the first time this year in April, climbing 10.2% to 1,041 units, but were down 8.7% year-to-date to 5,460.

Ford led the LCV market, despite 4-month sales dropping 9.2% to 1,206 units. Just behind was VW, down 6% to 1,103.

Irish vehicle-history tracking service Cartell says the average age of the country’s fleet of 2.21 million vehicles is 8.25 years, up from 8.0 years in just the past six months. The comparable U.K. figure is 7.44 years.

Cartell Director Jeff Aherne says it’s remarkable how quickly the fleet is aging.

“In July 2012 we noted the average age had tipped eight years for the first time. Now we are significantly older again,” Aherne says in a statement. “This is proof of the impact the recession is having on vehicle owners: People are holding their cars for longer, and when they are buying, they are buying used vehicles in large numbers instead of new vehicles.”

Cartell says the situation is the same for the 400,000 commercial vehicles in Ireland, where the sector now has an average age of 9.28 years after rising half a year in the past 12 months.

It says the recession also has resulted in a dramatic fall-off in commercial-fleet registrations. “Clearly companies are finding the going tough,” Aherne says.