The highest number of brand-new cars sold in Ireland was around 150,000, and that was when our so-called “Celtic Tiger” was at its peak. Last year, we sold 124,954, which isn’t far off the same numbers, and that’s when we are in a cost-of-living crisis! Car sales are often a great way to predict what’s happening with consumer confidence, we complain about the price of butter going to €3.99, but we buy cars that are over €80 thousand euro without really questioning how we got here.
The price of cars aside, we are selling quite a number of them on finance, mostly some form of Personal Contract Plan (PCP). There’s nothing wrong with this way of buying a car, so long as you can afford it; even now, a lot of dealers will tell you the monthly payment rather than the total price.
This news will be great to those of you who are selling their used cars because the value of a decent diesel or petrol car has maintained very well. People are buying hybrids and battery powered cars but many are choosing a diesel unit in the secondhand market, so if you have a decent one it’s worth minding it because values are good.
You might also look around the yard and see if there’s something even older that you want rid of, as it’s starting to grow moss, these type of cars are often worth saving, not for the value just for the nostalgia. I have a 20 year old SEAT Leon that was recently repaired by Service Stop and is back running the daily grind. So don’t think it’s not worth saving, someone will love it.
There’s one thing for sure, 2026 has arrived in full sails and it’s going to be a wild year for the car industry so let us know if you are changing cars this year or will you hold on until 2027?
