THE NUMBER OF vehicles licensed in Ireland decreased by 11.1 per cent last month in comparison with the same period in 2011 – and the number of new vehicles falling off by 13.2 per cent – according to newly released figures by the Central Statistics Office.

The number of new private cars licensed in March 2012 experienced the greatest drop, with 10,581 such vehicles being licensed in comparison to 12,390 in the same period last year (-14.6 per cent)

In March 2012, the total number of all vehicles licensed was 17,171 compared with 19,307 in the corresponding month last year (-11.1 per cent).

The total number of all new vehicles licensed during March 2012 was 12,568 compared with 14,483 during the same month in 2011 – a decrease of 13.2 per cent.

In March, of the 10,581 new private cars licensed, 2,568 (24.3 per cent) were petrol and 7,705 (72.8 per cent) were diesel.

The highest number of new private cars licensed in March 2012, classified by make, was Nissan (1,410) followed by Volkswagen (1,257), Toyota (1,140) and Renault (947).

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