A longing for the Sunday drive
The nostril delight of the new car smell, the smooth steering and the sprinting burst of life in the lightest of touches on the accelerator. There is a lot to be said for that satisfaction found in the feel of a new car purchased from any number of the professional car dealers in our region.
There is also a simple pleasure in the joy of driving a well-balanced, well-made vehicle along the network of roads - from winding picturesque bends high in the mountains to the more rolling country boreens.
Covid-19 has curtailed our adventures to the far reaches of our country but no doubt that will open up soon and we will be back on day trips and Sunday drives into the beautiful scenery of Ireland.
It is an expensive business purchasing a car, but with the wonderful financial possibilities available from our Credit Unions, banks and the many other finance options, it is a dream that has never been easier to fulfil.
It is difficult to find positives for the motor industry in these trying times, just the same as all other business sectors. But there are chinks of light in the darkness.
As reported previously by The-Avondhu, new car sales fell dramatically in the lockdowns but recovered by the end of the year.
In general, Central Statistics Office figures show that a total of 16,948 new private cars were licensed in January of this year, a drop of 18% compared with January of last year.
But then other CSO figures show that the number of used imported private cars, licensed last month, rose by 5.8% to 8,126 from a figure of 7,683 the same time last year.
DEMAND FOR HYBRID AND ELECTRIC
There was more good news as it appears that the green boom is reaching car sales. Despite the drop of 18% in the overall number of new cars licensed last month, the number of new electric cars licensed grew by 27.6% from 579 to 739, while new plug-in hybrid electric cars licensed almost doubled - rising by over 93%.
The CSO said the number of new hybrid and electric cars licensed last month accounted for 32.9% of all new cars licensed. This compared with 20.8% in January 2020.
That all flies in the face of predictions that Brexit would destroy the imported used car element of the industry.
The old reliable Toyota was the most popular make of new private car licensed, followed by Hyundai, Ford, Volkswagen and Skoda.
While 34.2% of new private cars licensed last month were diesel, compared with 41% in the same period in 2020.
The CSO also revealed that of new private cars licensed in the same period, 80.5% were in the A/B CO2 emissions bands.
It is all open to interpretation but there is a bedding-in period with the British exit from the European economic area. But the good news is that our local garages are there to bring those hopes of open roads and quality comfortable well built vehicles to life, whether it is used or new.