Kildare bucks the national trend by posting improved car sales figures for 2018

Kildare is bucking the national trend in terms of car sales this year, with the county one of the few across the country that hasn’t seen a downturn in sales over the first 10 months of the year.

Out of the 26 counties in the Republic of Ireland, just Kildare, Carlow, Louth and Wexford have not seen the number of new car sales fall this year in comparison to 2017.

According to statistics released by the Society of the Irish Motors Industry (SIMI), there were 5,280 new cars registered in Kildare this year in comparison to 5,250 up to this point in 2017.

However, official statistics show that the total new car registrations for the month of October in Ireland were down 11.2% (1,725) when compared to October 2017 (1,943). Registrations year to date are also down 4.4% (124,809) on the same period last year (130,491).

New Light Commercial Vehicle registrations (LCV) have increased by 14.1% (998) on October 2017 (875) and are up 5.9% (24,779) year to date. While New Heavy Commercial Vehicles (HGV) have increase 13.2% for the month of October (129) when compared to the same month last year (114) and are up 4.8% (2,460) year to date.

Imported Used Cars have shown an increase 7.45% for the month of October 2018 (9,141) when compared to October 2017 (8,507) while year to date are 8.95% (86,418) ahead of 2017 (79,320).

Commenting on the figures Brian Cooke SIMI Director General Designate said: "It comes as no surprise that new car registrations are down again this month, in line with the trend in the market so far this year. While the domestic economic backdrop continues to be positive, as evidenced by the increase in commercial vehicle registrations this year, the impact of Brexit and the associated weakness of Sterling has seen an increase in the volume of used imports, which has been to the detriment of the new car market."