A sluggish start to 2017 for car sales

THE latest sales report from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) reveals a sluggish start to the year.

The SIMI/DoneDeal Report highlights the challenging and uncertain year that the Industry has faced with new car sales down eight per cent and commercial vehicle sales falling by 11 per cent in the first quarter of 2017. This happened despite the Irish economic prospects looking better than at the beginning of the year.

Jim Power Economist and author of the Review said “Consumer behaviour remains relatively cautious. Personal expenditure on big ticket items such as cars is being undermined by the ongoing upward pressure on the price of necessities such as motor and home insurance, private rents, private health insurance and housing.

Based on sales so far in 2017, it is possible that registrations for the full year could be 10% down on 2016. This would imply a total of around 132,000, but it has to be stressed that the market is not very predictable at the moment.”

The SIMI/DoneDeal Review outlined that the cost of motoring in 2017 has increased substantially. There has been a 14 per cent increase in petrol prices and a 19 per cent jump in the cost of diesel prices. While motor insurance costs have seen a reduction of 6.1 per cent from July 2016 to March 2017 over the full year March 2016 to March 2017 motor insurance still shows an overall increase of 0.7 per cent.

“Brexit continues to play a role in uncertainty. The decline in new car sales has been a nationwide trend in the first quarter of 2017. while the market is difficult to predict this year, the second quarter of 2017 will hopefully give us a clearer picture,” said ALan Nolan of the SIMI.