New car sales getting back into top gear

Dealerships in Galway have recorded a boom in new car sales this year – so far in 2015, they’re up by more than one-third on the same period last year.

According to new figures from SIMI (the Society of the Irish Motor Industry) and website DoneDeal, new car sales were up 36.1% in the first nine month of this year on the January-September period last year.

The figures tally with separate data provided for the Connacht Tribune by Motorcheck, which show that 4,964 new cars were registered in Galway so far this year, up from 3,661 during the same period (35.6%).

The most popular new car in Galway on ‘151 G’ and ‘152 G’ plates this year is the Volkswagen Golf, with 247 sold (up from 212 for the same period last year).

Alan Nolan, Director General of SIMI, said: “The continued increase of sales in Galway is a big positive for the area. The motor industry is to the fore of recovery across the country and this is no different in Galway.

“This shows a great increase in consumer confidence across the county, which is helping to create jobs and pumping more money into the local economy and is a huge boost for the region.

“The acceptance in the recent Budget that the motor industry should be let continue to grow without any additional taxes has shown that it’s working and that it will continue to work into 2016,” said Mr Nolan.

A breakdown of the cars sold in Galway shows 2,056 were diesel; 336 petrol; 20 were hybrids and eight were electric.

Motorcheck.ie figures show that 73 cars were sold in Galway in October (compared to 79 in October last year), with 12 sold so far in November.

After the VW Golf, the other most popular marques are the Nissan Qashqai (225, up from 161); the Toyota Corolla (219, up from 208); the Skoda Octavia (175, up from 101) and the Ford Focus (168, up from 148).

Used car imports are down by 15.4% in Galway – from 2,863 in the first nine months last year to 2,421 for the same period this year.