Hyundai Tucson: Ireland’s best selling car of 2017 so far

Published on 3 March, 2017

Hyundai's Tucson crossover is the country’s best selling car, according to new figures.

Overview

Hyundai's Tucson crossover is the country’s best selling car, according to new figures.

But latest SIMI statistics show that fewer cars were registered last month – overall registrations were down by 21pc to 17,128.

Registrations for the first two months of the year are down 8.4pc.

Among the other best-sellers in the tighter market were the Nissan Qashqai, Ford Focus, Skoda Octavia, Volkswagen Golf, Ford Fiesta, Toyota Corolla, KIA Sportage, Toyota Yaris and Renault Megane.

The top-selling makes are Toyota, Hyundai, Ford, Volkswagen, Nissan, Renault, Skoda, KIA, Opel and Mercedes.

The inclusion of Mercedes in the Top 10 follows a 10pc price cut on all its cars from mid-November to help dealers battle with the fallout from Brexit and the flood of fresh used imports.

The special deal ended on February 28 but seems to have paid off as registrations rose by 75pc last month alone.

The best selling imports are the Ford Focus, Volkswagen Golf, Volkswagen Passat saloon, Audi A4, Nissan Qashqai, Audi A6, Hyundai i30, Toyota Avensis, BMW 5-series and Opel (Vauxhall) Insignia.

Sales of Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) fell 28pc in February and are down 11pc (8,869) year to date.

SIMI Director General Alan Nolan said: “We have been anticipating lower numbers in February compared to 2016, with Brexit continuing to impact on used-vehicle imports, with fewer working days this year and with fewer hire-drive cars because of a later Easter but these numbers are somewhat poorer than we had hoped.”

Michael Rochford, managing director of Motorcheck.ie, said: “This month’s sales stats must be taken with a pinch a salt as there is a little distortion due to the leap year in 2016. There is no doubt that this year is not going to perform as well as 2016.

He added: “There is a lot of uncertainty around due to Brexit and with exchange rates in their current position used car imports from the UK are growing massively. But with 5,000 new cars being registered on the last day of January and almost 4,000 on the last day of February the message to the public is that this is a great time to go new car shopping as dealers will want to unload these pre-registered vehicles to sustain the market.”