Sales of new cars in the first five months of 2010 are up 41 per cent on the same period last year, according to new figures published by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) this morning.
For the first five months of 2010 some 57,898 new cars were sold, 438 more than the total number of vehicles purchased in 2009.
During the first five months of 2009, 40,933 new cars were sold.
SIMI attributed the jump in sales to the scrappage scheme, which was introduced in the December budget.
°At the start of this year, we were very cautious about our expectations for 2010. While we knew that scrappage would have the knock on effect of increased sales, we didn’t expect to be hitting the 57,000 mark in May," said SIMI director general Alan Nolan.
"At the beginning of the year we predicted 70,000 new car sales for 2010. Now, we are looking at considerably more. Our proposals last year estimated that around 10,000 scrappage scheme cars would be sold, but we also predicted that one of the real benefits of scrappage would be to kick-start the demand for new cars," he added
The scrappage scheme entails a €1,500 reduction of Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) on the purchase of a new low-emissions car when an applicable used car is traded-in against it.
While it only applies to the purchase of new cars with emissions of less than 140g/km, versions of many mainstream family cars and premium models still qualify.
