SIMI March statistics show new car registrations for the month at 21,590, a decrease of 23.19% on March 2007, when new car registrations were at 28,107. Year to date statistics for 2008 are recorded at 93,045, compared to 100,297 over the first 3 months of last year, a decrease of 7.23%.

While the March figures show a fairly significant fall on last year they need to be viewed in the context of the very unusual business month that resulted this year from the convergence of the St Patrick’s Day and Easter Holidays. This produced a month with significantly fewer working days than 2007 and virtually a two-week holiday period.

Commenting on the figures SIMI Director General Alan Nolan said it would be misleading to draw too many conclusions from these figures, as they do not provide an accurate comparison with the same period last year. A true comparison of the market won’t be available until the release of the registration figures for April.