’131′ plates don’t seem to be working as new car sales down 11.2% in May

Tallon

I can't believe it, who would have thought it? :eek:

THERE WERE 7,095 new private cars licensed last month, a fall of 11.2 per cent when compared with the 7,986 cars licensed in May last year.

However, the number of new goods vehicles licensed last month was 1,174, up 11.9 per cent in comparison with May 2012.

According to figures from the Central Statistics Office, in May, the total number of all vehicles licensed was 14,996 compared with 14,412 the corresponding month last year – an increase of 4.1 per cent.

Out of the 7,095 new private cars licensed in May, 25.5 per cent were petrol and 73.7 per cent were diesel.

The highest number of new private cars licensed last month, were Volkswagen at 909, followed by Hyundai (787), Ford (644) and Toyota (635).

http://businessetc.thejournal.ie/new-car-sales-down-941167-Jun2013/

dgt

I'd hazard a guess a fair few goods vehicles are commercial RR's/Land Cruisers/Discos etc. Seeing plenty of new ones in recent tmes

Sam Russell

I hear desperate sounding adverts on the radio for the last of the 131s! This wonder scam is now biting the motor trade in the bum.

SV

There'll be an increase now with 132's.

giant_midget

Are they going back to normal next year i.e 14-D-12345?

djimi

I suppose it was inevitable that this would happen. Probably not much point in them looking too closely at the figures until the end of the year and they can review the year as a whole. The hope would be that the increase of sales in the second half of the year with 132 reg cars would cancel out the slowdown towards the end of the 131 months.

maximoose

dgt wrote: »

I'd hazard a guess a fair few goods vehicles are commercial RR's/Land Cruisers/Discos etc. Seeing plenty of new ones in recent tmes

Landrover 5th highest in commercial registrations. High enough I suppose.

giant_midget wrote: »

Are they going back to normal next year i.e 14-D-12345?

I think I read that this system is here to stay? Could be wrong

JoeA3

System is here to stay. It'll be 141/142 next year.

I'd say there'll be a short-lived bump in the sales figures in July but it'll tail off dramatically again from September.

urajoke

Here to stay I'm sorry to say.

ShadowHearth

Wasn't idea of 131 and 132 to split and break up the sales through the whole year, instead of having stupidly busy January and completely dead the rest of 11 month?

If what, we should see another wave of car sales now with 132?

maximoose

ShadowHearth wrote: »

If what, we should see another wave of car sales now with 132?

In theory yes, be interesting to see if it actually happens.

DarkJager

All this because some superstitious imbeciles in this country didn't want the number 13 on their car.

Tallon

DarkJager wrote: »

All this because some superstitious imbeciles in this country didn't want the number 13 on their car.

But the number 13 is still on the car!

That's what makes it even more retarded

DarkJager

Tallon wrote: »

But the number 13 is still on the car!

That's what makes it even more retarded

Irish solution to an Irish problem - add a number to the original one so you can pretend it isn't there.

MuppetCheck

maximoose wrote: »

In theory yes, be interesting to see if it actually happens.

I'm due to get a new car in the next week or so and if I'm honest I'm not a blind bit bothered whether it says 131 or 132. I think in the end I might wait a week or two so that it is 132 just for a tiny little bit of novelty factor now.

mikehammer67

daftest thing ever

prob a brown enveloped handed over somewhere

R.O.R

There will be a spike in July, but not that great. Will only really shift cars that would have been registered in June through to July.

I wouldn't be blaming slow sales on the 131/132 plate thing, it's mainly still down to the recession. Industry is on it's @rse and if we don't see a decent July / August I fear we'll see more closures.

maximoose

MuppetCheck wrote: »

I'm due to get a new car in the next week or so and if I'm honest I'm not a blind bit bothered whether it says 131 or 132. I think in the end I might wait a week or two so that it is 132 just for a tiny little bit of novelty factor now.

I'd chance your arm looking for a discount on a 131 as it's not "new" anymore :pac:

MuppetCheck

maximoose wrote: »

I'd chance your arm looking for a discount on a 131 as it's not "new" anymore :pac:

Been ordered 4 months at this stage, got something for the delay already so I don't think it would be worth trying with a straight face:D

gctest50

DarkJager wrote: »

All this because some superstitious imbeciles in this country didn't want the number 13 on their car.

Goes way more than that - no row 13 on some planes, no row 13 or row 17 on Lufthansa

17 = unlucky in Brazil and Italy apparently

I've a felling it will go on for another year until sometime in 2014 they will announce it will be going back to the old way in "15" and how its been a massive fail.

ba_barabus

cisk wrote: »

I've a felling it will go on for another year until sometime in 2014 they will announce it will be going back to the old way in "15" and how its been a massive fail.

Doubt it.

Wasn't it that idiot from Kerry that championed this?

hardCopy

DarkJager wrote: »

All this because some superstitious imbeciles in this country didn't want the number 13 on their car.

I think that was just the excuse to push through a change that the industry wanted.

smemon

Next thing you know they'll want to bring in an additional 1-12 at the end of the year to signify which month the car was bought.

Why? To level out sales over each month and not have two peak sales periods i.e. January and June.

After that, it'll be week numbers because they don't want all sales happening at the beginning of the month... then it'll be numbers to signify days because they won't want all sales to happen on a monday...

Fiskar

Heard a Christmas jingle advert for Ford on the radio this morning, defo in panic mode. More dealers will close especially with the boom in 2nd hand imports, and that is where my next car is coming from as well.

Akrasia

smemon wrote: »

Next thing you know they'll want to bring in an additional 1-12 at the end of the year to signify which month the car was bought.

Why? To level out sales over each month and not have two peak sales periods i.e. January and June.

After that, it'll be week numbers because they don't want all sales happening at the beginning of the month... then it'll be numbers to signify days because they won't want all sales to happen on a monday...

its a slippery slope I'm tellin ya

Senecio

I've never understood the Irish fascination with a reg plate. Where I come from its all about the build date. I know you can't see it in the car park, but much more meaningful in determining a cars age and therefore, perceived worth.

Jordan537

Although i agree the irish plate system is a good idea, i dont like it. Makes the car looked old if its anything past 3 years. I seen a Porchse the other day with a 98 plate, didn't look the same.....

dredg

Jordan537 wrote: »

Although i agree the irish plate system is a good idea, i dont like it. Makes the car looked old if its anything past 3 years. I seen a Porchse the other day with a 98 plate, didn't look the same.....

That's one of the funniest things I've ever read. Maybe they should put reg plates on houses so people like you change up every 3 years.

D_murph

dredg wrote: »

That's one of the funniest things I've ever read. Maybe they should put reg plates on houses so people like you change up every 3 years.

And tax them on emissions rather than size :pac:.

Anan1

Tallon wrote: »

’131′ plates don’t seem to be working as new car sales down 11.2% in May

That's a non sequitur.

Brussels Sprout

This whole thread is ridiculous.

djPSB

Was the idea of the new system not to spread car sales more evenly throughout the year?

Therefore, comparing sales after 5 months of the year is pointless. The comparison must be made at the end of the year.

positron

I too hate year on number plates. Why do you need it anyway? If someone want to know how old a car is, they should look at the vehicle registration document. And if the owner doesn't want to show you that, then it's none of your business anyway. Like others said I have seen better kept 96, 98 cars than many 11 or 12 cars. It's really disgraceful that we let business interests of a bunch of people allow them to desecrate objects of passion and love of many hard working people with simple tastes and hobbies!

JohnBoy26

MuppetCheck wrote: »

I'm due to get a new car in the next week or so and if I'm honest I'm not a blind bit bothered whether it says 131 or 132. I think in the end I might wait a week or two so that it is 132 just for a tiny little bit of novelty factor now.

I would rather the old two digit system myself even if it had to be a 13 reg. The new plates with the three digits don't look good at all Imo.

scamalert

Pure stupidity if you ask majority to put 131 instead of plain 13,its only number plate means F all,what about someone who was born on 13th you dont put it 13/4 or round it up to 14 ,reminds a bid of saudi mania to have number plate as close to 1 as possible and forking 10times more then any car is worth for them :pac: .
The sales might be down but because of this new system,when time will come to sell them cars unless it will be with some proper extras and well taken care majority will face troubles as people will be looking to purchase 132,just by thinking its a later model,where until now no one cared which month car was bought unless it was transitional model that had upgrades in last months.

Comhrá

Will a 132 reg car be worth a few hundred more then a 131 reg in two or three years time if you're trading it in against a new model?

If the value is the same for a 131 and a 132, then what's the point of having two different numbers for a given year, why would someone wait till after July to buy if the later reg. plate doesn't have greater residual value?

In other words, why would this new system help spread new registrations more evenly over a twelve-month period?

Chris_Heilong

I really thought this new system was a 2013 only thing, disappointing to hear that it is here to stay but I wont be buying a car with a 3 digit year number for at least the next 10 years.

Anan1

tippman1 wrote: »

Will a 132 reg car be worth a few hundred more then a 131 reg in two or three years time if you're trading it in against a new model?

If the value is the same for a 131 and a 132, then what's the point of having two different numbers for a given year, why would someone wait till after July to buy if the later reg. plate doesn't have greater residual value?

It will have greater residual value.

tippman1 wrote: »

In other words, why would this new system help spread new registrations more evenly over a twelve-month period?

See above!

Saab Ed

My prediction is the entire market will switch predominantly to July registrations over the next couple of years. It makes more sense. Would you rather buy a new car in cold & wet January when your bank account has just been emptied by Xmas and your gas bill is huge or would you rather buy it in sunny July!

For what its worth I already have more pre orders for July than I did 4 weeks before last January. I think its a great idea myself. Lovely having the year balanced out rather than being top heavy as it used to be.

dr.fuzzenstein

Only in Ireland could they design a system that is designed to spread the sale of cars evenly over the year, because the motoring industry complained that everyone buys their cars in January and there's nothing for the rest of the year and then there's hysterics and hand-wringing when it does exactly that.

rocky

Chris_Heilong wrote: »

I really thought this new system was a 2013 only thing, disappointing to hear that it is here to stay but I wont be buying a car with a 3 digit year number for at least the next 10 years.

Don't put yourself down, you may get a better job !

donaghs

How do the "motor trade" have so much influence with our governments? From scrapage schemes to 131 and 132 regs, they get their stuff done quicker when it's seems to take an age to get politicians to do other stuff.

It's not as if we actually make cars in Ireland, we're basically talking about shops reselling an imported product. Why all the fuss?

Eric Cartman

donaghs wrote: »

How do the "motor trade" have so much influence with our governments? From scrapage schemes to 131 and 132 regs, they get their stuff done quicker when it's seems to take an age to get politicians to do other stuff.

It's not as if we actually make cars in Ireland, we're basically talking about shops reselling an imported product. Why all the fuss?

to be fair if the motor trade had that much influence car tax wouldn't be as high as it is now.

Its a superstitious politician in the west you need to look at for the 131/132 fiasco, I wouldn't be surprised if in august JHR said he made a mistake and we can go back to 2 digits in January.

the scrappage scheme was just a bit of a lobby by SIMI really to boost new car sales and get a lot of older cars off the road.

Mint Sauce

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

Only in Ireland could they design a system that is designed to spread the sale of cars evenly over the year, because the motoring industry complained that everyone buys their cars in January and there's nothing for the rest of the year and then there's hysterics and hand-wringing when it does exactly that.

Car Reg's change every 6 months in the GB as well (not sure about NI). Weather or not this is down to having more than one peak selling point I'm not sure.

Sam Russell

irish-stew wrote: »

Car Reg's change every 6 months in the GB as well (not sure about NI). Weather or not this is down to having more than one peak selling point I'm not sure.

That is exactly why it was introduced.

In 1963 (I think) thay added A to the end of a registration because they ran out of numbers. I think ony half the 63 cars got it. Then in 1967 or 68 they changed the date of changeover to the 1st of August to shift the peak sales away from January. Then about 1998 or so, they started changing the letter twice a year. In 2001, they introduced the current system with the year changes on 1st April and 1st September. Current format is XX13XXX where 13 is the current year and X is any letter. In September, this will become XX63XXX

This system has been designed to maximise the possible private plate combinations so the DVLA can auction them off. A nice little earner for them and voluntary tax for the vain.

Edit: NI just added an extra number and kept the old system - which is what we should have done.



We sort of copied them, but not the private plate thing. Baldy does not like them.

Daft.

Cienciano

smemon wrote: »

Next thing you know they'll want to bring in an additional 1-12 at the end of the year to signify which month the car was bought.

Next year they're bring in 10 digit number plates. 090613 50k 8
It's the date you bought the car so people can see exactly how new it is, followed by your annual income, followed by your penis size in inches. Girth will be added in 2017

Guy:Incognito

Cienciano wrote: »

Next year they're bring in 10 digit number plates. 090613 50k 8
It's the date you bought the car so people can see exactly how new it is, followed by your annual income, followed by your penis size in inches.

Crap, mines going to have 12 digits....

galwaytt

Saab Ed wrote: »

My prediction is the entire market will switch predominantly to July registrations over the next couple of years. It makes more sense. Would you rather buy a new car in cold & wet January when your bank account has just been emptied by Xmas and your gas bill is huge or would you rather buy it in sunny July!

For what its worth I already have more pre orders for July than I did 4 weeks before last January. I think its a great idea myself. Lovely having the year balanced out rather than being top heavy as it used to be.

If everyone moves to July instead, it'll still be top heavy - just in a different month.....

CiniO

Saab Ed wrote: »

My prediction is the entire market will switch predominantly to July registrations over the next couple of years. It makes more sense. Would you rather buy a new car in cold & wet January when your bank account has just been emptied by Xmas and your gas bill is huge or would you rather buy it in sunny July!

That's pretty much how it works in other countries where reg plate doesn't show year of first registration.
People tend to buy new cars rather in the summer, when weather is nice.

BTW - it there any other country than Ireland or UK that displays first registration date on number plate?

wil

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Crap, mines going to have 12 digits....

Boasting about your salary again:pac:

Wonder if these long numbers make it more difficult to remember reg numbers for witnesses/gardai for crime / accident purposes