August car sales encouraging ahead of critical month for plate changes

This followed a small increase of 1.2 per cent in July and was the fourth increase in the past five months, leading the automotive sector to be hoping that August’s growth is a harbinger for robust sales in the key month of September, with August traditionally the second quietest month of the year for car sales given that number plates change in September.

Sales of diesel cars (down 7.7 per cent year-on-year in August) have been impacted by environmental concerns and expectations of related Government action to counter this.

Despite August’s jump, new car sales were down 4.2 per cent year-on-year over the first eight months of 2018 at 1,571,986 units, and prior to April, car sales had fallen year-on-year for 12 months running.

Fleet sales were down 4.7 per cent year-on-year over the first eight months of 2018 at 819,311 units.

New sales to the fleet sector rose 19.7 per cent year-on-year in August to 50.157 units. This followed an increase of 2.6 per cent in July, which along with April had been only the other increase for fleet sales this year.

Private new car sales were down 3.1 per cent year-on-year over the first eight months of 2018 at 696,391 units, indicating that consumers have been cautious over making major purchases as the extended squeeze on their purchasing power only gradually eases.

However, private new car sales increased 23.3 per cent year-on-year in August to 41,438 units. This followed a marginal increase of 0.1 per cent in July and a small drop of 0.6 per cent year-on-year in June. Prior to this, there had been gains of 10.1 per cent year-on-year in May and 24.3 per cent year-on-year in April.