OFFICIAL STATISTICS RELEASED by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) show that the total new car registrations in Ireland for the year 2017 finished at 131,356, 10.43 per cent down on 2016.

Thanks to the falling value of sterling, used imports surged and totalled 93,454, which was an increase of 29.5 per cent on 2016 (72,153).

The top selling car brand in Ireland for 2017 was Volkswagen followed by Toyota, Ford, Hyundai and Nissan.

The top selling car model for 2017 was the Hyundai Tucson followed by the Volkswagen Golf, Nissan Qashqai, Skoda Octavia and Ford Focus.

And the bestselling car colour was… grey.

Commenting on the figures, SIMI Director General, Alan Nolan said:

2017 was a very challenging year for the motor industry, mainly due to the impact of Brexit on Euro/Sterling exchange rates. Without Brexit we would have anticipated a reasonable level of growth in the market.

He added: “This number is still better than most recent years and produced reasonable volumes across all vehicle sales sectors.”

Here are the key stats from the report: 

• New car sales year to date 2017: 131,356 / -10%
• Light Commercial Vehicles sales year to date: 24,195 / -14%
• Heavy Goods Vehicle total sales year to date 2017: 2,602 / -9%
• Used Car Imports year to date 2017: 93,454 / +30%

READ: The amount of cars offered for sale with outstanding finance is on the rise >

READ: Taking a load off-road? Land Rover has revealed the van version of the new Discovery >