Irish Car sales collapse

copacetic

From todays sunday business post:

(Note that the drop here is double that of in the UK based on the other thread)

Car sales in the slow lane
Sunday, September 07, 2008 By Ferdia O’Dowd

New car sales fell by 41.6 per cent in August, totalling 5,252 units, against 8,991 new cars sold in the same month last year.

So far this year, 2008 sales are running 16.7 per cent below those of last year. This year’s figure stands at 145,643 units, while last year’s figure was 174,866 cars at the end of eight months. Sales of light commercial vehicles, always a reflection of economic activity, fell by nearly 65 per cent, most likely due to the stall in construction.

During the month of August, Toyota led the way, with 581 sales, followed by VW with 507 units and Ford with 483. BMW, with its Efficient Dynamics low emissions technology, took fourth place, just one car behind Ford, with 482 sales.

ninty9er

Poor Ferdia, can't see that 482 is smaller than 483:D:D

This has been expected every year since 2000. 2000 was expected to be the best year ever, never to be surpassed and it was...continuously. Unsustainable really. Still it's not as bad as 1966 eh!

copacetic

ninty9er wrote: »

Poor Ferdia, can't see that 482 is smaller than 483:D:D

This has been expected every year since 2000. 2000 was expected to be the best year ever, never to be surpassed and it was...continuously. Unsustainable really. Still it's not as bad as 1966 eh!

emmm, Ford with 483, BMW with 482


would wonder what year it puts us back too, UK back to 1966 levels with a 20% drop. 40% must push us back a reasonable way?

ninty9er

copacetic wrote: »

emmm, Ford with 483, BMW with 482


would wonder what year it puts us back too, UK back to 1966 levels with a 20% drop. 40% must push us back a reasonable way?

Apologies; saw that comma in the wrong place.

145,000 private cars is already ahead of the whole year for 2003 at 142,992

My bad on previous post; there was a drop in new car sales in 2001, 2002 and 2003, but on the rise since.

copacetic

ninty9er wrote: »

Apologies; saw that comma in the wrong place.

145,000 private cars is already ahead of the whole year for 2003 at 142,992

My bad on previous post; there was a drop in new car sales in 2001, 2002 and 2003, but on the rise since.

I wonder are the monthly figures getting worse month on month though? eg first 6months well ahead of say, 2003, but august down on august 2003?

Most worrying one is that light commercial drop, if they don't sell then there has really been a drop in services/construction, it is a key figure for economists.

ninty9er

copacetic wrote: »

I wonder are the monthly figures getting worse month on month though? eg first 6months well ahead of say, 2003, but august down on august 2003?

Most worrying one is that light commercial drop, if they don't sell then there has really been a drop in services/construction, it is a key figure for economists.

About 150,000 construction jobs will have to be plugged by retraining into other sectors. Retail is the only self propelling sector, though other economic activity is required to propel it fast enough!

copacetic

ninty9er wrote: »

About 150,000 construction jobs will have to be plugged by retraining into other sectors. Retail is the only self propelling sector, though other economic activity is required to propel it fast enough!

and retail will fall in a hurry if that many people lose their jobs. Another story in the sbp says that up to 1/3 of the 3000 architects working in Ireland will be out of work by the end of the year. Not sure any of them would fancy working in Spar. O'Mahony Pike is given as an example, letting 60 out of 130 go.

It's just anecdotal, but say of those 1000 well paid architects, 800 emigrate, selling on the volvos/saabs they have. Thats 800 used cars on the market and say 300 new cars not bought, if you assume that a reasonable number would be changing cars in a particular year.

Easy to see how the knock on effects hit the car market just as badly as the house market.

AJ1

I was trying to buy a new car for the wife in July. We always go to the same dealer (for both of us) in North Wicklow. They didn't have the colour she wanted could we wait 3 months? I said it wouldn't be worth our while, we may aswell wait for an '09 if that's the case. The salesman said he'd get one not to worry, he'd pull a few strings and call us that monday, no call, I rang Tuesday was told I'd get a call that evening, next day I rang him told him I have a cheque here in me hand and if he couldn't get it at least give me the courtesy of a phone call:mad: - ok he said I'll call you tomorrow, for definite! --- 2 days later I rang him and told him to shove it - and they wonder why sales are bad

pburns

I remember in the bad old days of the mid-80s when relatives of mine were buying new Corollas, Sunnys and Carinas. Customers were so scarce that they discovered dealers were phoning each other about one lousy Corolla sale in a bid not to push each other too low.
Very different times...