Car sales back to black

Number of new cars sold is up 28pc, and the most popular colour is black

HENRY Ford once said you can have any colour you want as long as it’s black.

And that’s exactly the colour consumers are choosing for their new cars today.

So far this year, a total of 74,001 new cars have been bought – and one in five of them are black, the latest industry figures show.

Silver proved nearly as popular, with grey coming in at a close third at 17.06 per cent of the new cars sold in the first four months of this year.

Overall, the five most popular car marques were Volkswagen, Toyota, Ford, Hyundai and Nissan. The top three models were the Volkswagen Golf, the Ford Focus and the Nissan Qashqai.

Also popular was the Toyota Corolla and the Skoda Octavia. The Toyota Yaris also made it on to the list of the top ten.

The van most popular with consumers was the Ford Transit.

The greatest number of cars were sold in Dublin, with 38.31 per cent of cars sold in that county.

But a short drive away in Wicklow, car sales came to a 2.27 per cent of the national sales figures.

Leitrim represented just 0.48 per cent of total new car sales.

Some 12.04 per cent of cars were white or ivory, while 11.06 per cent were red or maroon. Beige was second to last, with just 1.7 per cent of cars sold so far this year boasting that colour.

Last was the nation’s official colour – green – with just 0.6 of new cars being sold in the country where there are supposedly forty shades of the stuff.

Trade body the Society of the Irish Motor Industry hailed the sales figures, saying the number of new cars sold was 28 per cent up on the same period last year.

Brian Cooke, deputy directorgeneral of the SIMI, said: ‘The increase in registrations contin- ues to demonstrate improvements in the marketplace.

‘The strong growth in retail sales highlights consumer confidence around the country with every county experiencing an increase in sales. Longford has seen the strongest growth in sales with 46 per cent, while Wexford is some way behind the trend with the lowest growth rate, just 10 per cent.

‘LCV [light commercial vehicle] registrations continue to show improvements in the business environment as many companies are starting to i nvest i n the renewal of their fleets.’

SIMI figures show car sales rose last month, with 9,471 sold versus 7,822 in April 2014.

Some 12,152 light commercial vehicles have been sold in the first four months of this year compared to 7,641 in the same period last year.

‘Every county has had a sales rise’