Brexit blamed for lower car sales in 2017

Anton McNulty

The uncertainty over Brexit has been blamed for the reductions in new car sales in Mayo in 2017 with more people now importing used cars.
A report into the first Quarterly Motor Industry Review for 2017 by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) in association with Done Deal has shown an 8 percent decrease in the number of new car sales in Ireland.
In Mayo, the report shows a 13.9 percent decrease in the first three months of 2017 compared with the same period in 2016. There were 1,444 new cars registered in Mayo in the first quarter this year with 1,677 cars registered for the first quarter last year.   
Speaking in relation to the sales figures, Alan Nolan of SIMI commented that with Brexit more people were looking to import used vehicles.
“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 and the motor industry in Mayo is no different. Used car imports increased by 56 percent while LCV imports were up 53 percent on the first quarter of 2016. Used car imports are primarily between three and five years old reflecting the shortage of second hand cars during the registration period 2009 to 2013 and the over six years age group,” he said.

Good second quarter
Despite the decrease in car sales for the start of the year, Mr Nolan said 2017 is still shaping up to be a good year and the second quarter of 2017 will ‘hopefully give us a clearer picture’.
According to DoneDeal 4,267 car ads were placed on their site from Mayo in the first three months of 2017 and the value of the cars advertised was €35,381,814.The SIMI/DoneDeal review outlined that between March 2016 and March 2017, the cost of petrol has increased by 14.3 percent and diesel prices by 18.7 percent. Motor insurance costs have seen a reduction of 6.1 percent from July 2016 to March 2017 but over the full year from March 2016 to March 2017, motor insurance still shows an overall increase of 0.7 percent.
The Economist, Jim Power, who was the author of the review said the results showed that consumer behaviour remains relatively cautious.
“Based on sales so far in 2017, it is possible that registrations for the full year could be 10 percent 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.”