New Car market up 44%

RedorDead

For first ten days in January. 1 swallow doesnt make a summer but its a good start nonetheless. Sales by manufacturer top 15 are below. Hyundai very strong and IX35 is the biggest selling car in the country so far.

1 TOYOTA 1467
2 HYUNDAI 1198
3 VOLKSWAGEN 919
4 FORD 819
5 SKODA 505
6 RENAULT 495
7 KIA 453
8 NISSAN 406
9 GM(OPEL) 382
10 AUDI 374
11 PEUGEOT 347
12 BMW 324
13 MERCEDES-BENZ 294
14 DACIA 268
15 MAZDA 236

Zubeneschamali

I was wondering where FIAT have gone, and according to SIMI, they only sold 457 units in the whole of 2013!

Half their sales were 500s: their biggest seller is a niche/cute/fashion town car.

Back in 2007, they sold more than 500 cars in January alone!

RedorDead

Fiat are on 25 and are being outsold by all apart from Perodua (2) and Subaru (22). Alfa Romeo have sold 0!

road_high

I think the 500l could be a great seller but it's priced wrong, too expensive in my book for where Fiat are coming from.
The Panda the same, selling way less than the previous which was a great little car.

For Forks Sake

RedorDead wrote: »

Fiat are on 25 and are being outsold by all apart from Perodua (2) and Subaru (22). Alfa Romeo have sold 0!

I'm more surprised by the fact that there were 2 Peroduas registered in this day and age...dealer(s) presumably?

NIMAN

RedorDead wrote: »

Fiat are on 25 and are being outsold by all apart from Perodua (2) and Subaru (22). Alfa Romeo have sold 0!

I have always fancied owning an Alfa, but I am probably a bit influenced by their reputation, irrespective if its justified or not. I guess many other are too.

I was just looking at www.carsireland.ie this morning, and there are only 65 Alfas for sale on it. Compare that to Ford 2380, VW 2320, BMW 1023, Toyota 2070, Nissan 2000.

Noccy_Mondy

Am I the only one that doesn't like the fact that Dacia are in that list.... :mad:

Tabnabs

Noccy_Mondy wrote: »

Am I the only one that doesn't like the fact that Dacia are in that list.... :mad:

Yes...

Zubeneschamali

Noccy_Mondy wrote: »

Am I the only one that doesn't like the fact that Dacia are in that list.... :mad:

I certainly wouldn't buy a Dacia, but I wouldn't buy a Toyota either, and they've been best-sellers here for donkeys years. I don't expect other folks to follow my tastes, nor do I get offended by theirs.

MuppetCheck

When you combine the numbers above you can really see the rise of the Korean makes.

VAG Group 1798
Hyundai/Kia 1651
Toyota 1467
Renault et al. 1169
Ford 819
Opel/GM 382
Peugeot 347
BMW 324
Mercedes 294
Mazda 236

Sobanek

MuppetCheck wrote: »

When you combine the numbers above you can really see the rise of the Korean makes.

VAG Group 1798
Hyundai/Kia 1651
Toyota 1467
Renault et al. 1169
Ford 819
Opel/GM 382
Peugeot 347
BMW 324
Mercedes 294
Mazda 236

Because they're cheap. Same reason for Dacia being in this list.
I've been inside an ix35 and found it awfully cheap inside.

road_high

Opel are one of the biggest losers from the rise of the Koreans and Skoda. They have been pushed way down the rankings where they used be a top 3 seller.

MuppetCheck

Sobanek wrote: »

Because they're cheap. Same reason for Dacia being in this list.
I've been inside an ix35 and found it awfully cheap inside.

Look at the price lists - they're not that cheap these days. Same with Skoda. The prices have risen significantly over the years meaning they are close on par with most of the opposition. They might have a slightly better spec and warranty but that's about it. And the interiors aren't as bad as they are made out to be - definitely better than Toyota and on a par with Opel/Ford.

I wonder if a few big Toyota dealers shifting to Renault/Dacia and Hyundai has impacted those figures much?

MugMugs

Sobanek wrote: »

Because they're cheap. Same reason for Dacia being in this list.
I've been inside an ix35 and found it awfully cheap inside.

No cheaper feeling than their Toyota counterpart.

Surprised Kia are so far down that list!

Zubeneschamali

MuppetCheck wrote: »

Look at the price lists - they're not that cheap these days.

In fact, the new ProCeed GT would cost more than a real GTI, if anyone was mad enough to buy one.

bear1

Such a pity there are no Italian makes there.
But Alfa have only themselves to blame, their lineup is pathetic at best.
Not enough advertising is done and coupled with most Irish's preference of small diesel bog standard cars it makes it a very bad market for them to even attempt to care (this is my opinion ).
The 169 was supposed to be here a while back but it's constantly being moved. Then there is the 8C, pointless that was.
Now we have the 4C which I can bet won't be here at all.
Fiat seems to be more focused on the States than anything else and it really is a shame as 10 years ago they were doing so well here.
It all seemed to go downhill once the 156 was stopped I think.

For Forks Sake

bear1 wrote: »

Such a pity there are no Italian makes there.
But Alfa have only themselves to blame, their lineup is pathetic at best.

A brace of small cars doesn't even constitute a range imo.

MuppetCheck

bear1 wrote: »

Such a pity there are no Italian makes there.
But Alfa have only themselves to blame, their lineup is pathetic at best.
Not enough advertising is done and coupled with most Irish's preference of small diesel bog standard cars it makes it a very bad market for them to even attempt to care (this is my opinion ).
The 169 was supposed to be here a while back but it's constantly being moved. Then there is the 8C, pointless that was.
Now we have the 4C which I can bet won't be here at all.
Fiat seems to be more focused on the States than anything else and it really is a shame as 10 years ago they were doing so well here.
It all seemed to go downhill once the 156 was stopped I think.

To be honest they should do a lot better than they are. The line up is the perfect low emission set for this country. The prices are possibly a little on the high side but the Giulietta should be selling more in this country.

bear1

I pretty much like the Giulietta, the MiTo on the other hand looks like a basket case
Prices I'd agree are too high for what they are but I still think they need to try harder.
When the first 1.6 petrol 156 came out it had 120bhp, now the 1.6JTD engine has 105bhp in the Giulietta, just seems like a step back.
Btw I'm a fan of Alfas, just more of the older ones I wouldn't say no to a Cloverleaf Giulietta though or a 2.4 20v 159 Ti

Zubeneschamali

MuppetCheck wrote: »

To be honest they should do a lot better than they are.

Their dealer network has been a shambles for 20 years at least.

JohnBoy26

Sobanek wrote: »

Because they're cheap. Same reason for Dacia being in this list.
I've been inside an ix35 and found it awfully cheap inside.

the kia/hyundai aren't cheap these days. They're not the bargain basement junk they once were. They are up there with other top brands these days and their interiors are fine Imo.

the reason kia/hyundai are selling well is not because they're cheap it's because their cars and their brand image have improved dramatically over the last number of years.

they cannot really be compared to a dacia. Hop into one of these and you'll know what cheap is.

MuppetCheck

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

Their dealer network has been a shambles for 20 years at least.

A major factor I'm sure.

Zubeneschamali

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

the reason kia/hyundai are selling well is not because they're cheap it's because their cars and their brand image have improved dramatically over the last number of years.

Offering 5 and 7 year warranties tells people you're serious.

vandriver

Are Citroen selling no cars these days?

Frankie Lee

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

the reason kia/hyundai are selling well is not because they're cheap it's because their cars and their brand image have improved dramatically over the last number of years.

Coupled with good engines too especially their 1.6crdi which is far superior to it VAG competitor.

I'm surprised to see Toyota doing so well but obviously the Auris and Rav4 must be selling.

ShadowHearth

road_high wrote: »

Opel are one of the biggest losers from the rise of the Koreans and Skoda. They have been pushed way down the rankings where they used be a top 3 seller.

I think opel has a little bit of an pricing issue. I really like that little opel Adam, but its price is just jaw droping. They could have undercut fiat 500 and get a strong share of these mini cars, but instead they priced it out of competition.
Opel is not cheap anymore. Korean stuff has them by the balls.

ShadowHearth

vandriver wrote: »

Are Citroen selling no cars these days?

That is a good question, I expected them to do a lot better with such great looking New DS range.

_Kaiser_

You have to remember that we're a small country/market for these companies and our obsession with "cheap tax" diesels means that we're an afterthought really.

Given that, we're lucky we get the range we do IMO

road_high

ShadowHearth wrote: »

I think opel has a little bit of an pricing issue. I really like that little opel Adam, but its price is just jaw droping. They could have undercut fiat 500 and get a strong share of these mini cars, but instead they priced it out of competition.
Opel is not cheap anymore. Korean stuff has them by the balls.

They are building the Adam in Germany which for what is supposed to be a small and reasonably affordable (trendy end I know) so I'd say that's underminiing the pricing. They need to be building something like that in Eastern europe or elsewhere to be competitive.

Voodoomelon

Wow, quite surprised by Mazda, thought their numbers would considerably more.

NIMAN

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

Offering 5 and 7 year warranties tells people you're serious.

Mitsubushi offering 8yr, so expect them to move up the list in the coming years

MugMugs

NIMAN wrote: »

Mitsubushi offering 8yr, so expect them to move up the list in the coming years

Have they built any cars to sell lately?

Stallingrad

Toyota should be very worried, they have been asleep at the wheel for years and the Koreans will keep taking market share. Hopefully it will give them the kick they need to start making cars people actually desire. Mazda show it can be done.

JohnBoy26

Stallingrad wrote: »

Toyota should be very worried, they have been asleep at the wheel for years and the Koreans will keep taking market share. Hopefully it will give them the kick they need to start making cars people actually desire. Mazda show it can be done.

How do mazda show how it can be done? They don't exactly have a great market share here themselves, in fact it's a lot worse than toyota's market share.

while mazda cars have a certain flare to them, they are expensive to buy and genuine parts are very expensive for them. They are also let down in the quality department in certain areas such rust protection and cheap feeling interiors, although their more recent efforts seem to have addressed the latter.

one has to remember too that this country is gone mad for diesel cars. Diesel engines haven't exactly been mazda's strong point.

bazz26

I wonder did Subaru sell anything?

Stallingrad

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

How do mazda show how it can be done? They don't exactly have a great market share here themselves, in fact it's a lot worse than toyota's market share.

I'm not talking about market share, obviously Toyota dominate there, but they seem incapable of producing cars that people actually desire. Mazda shows that a Japanese firm can deliver on this.

Guy:Incognito

Stallingrad wrote: »

I'm not talking about market share, obviously Toyota dominate there, but they seem incapable of producing cars that people actually desire. Mazda shows that a Japanese firm can deliver on this.

Maket share and building cars people desire are linked and by the look of it a lot more people desire to own Toyotas than mazdas.

There's a lot less money in building cars that people on the Internet think are nice but never actually buy rather than building cars that people actually buy.

corktina

Radio article I heard said sales were up just 3% for the first ten days of the year

bazz26

Toyota globally shift a lot more units per year than Mazda, Toyota are the second or third biggest producer of cars in the world behind VAG so of course they are desirable, to the people that bought all those units.

ba_barabus

MugMugs wrote: »

Have they built any cars to sell lately?

Hopefully not.

Their ASS-X is VILE.

Bpmull

Frankie Lee wrote: »

Coupled with good engines too especially their 1.6crdi which is far superior to it VAG competitor.

I don't know how you would possibly say that. When in terms of reliability and economy the 1.6tdi vag engine has to be one of the top Diesel engines on irish roads at the moment. Maybe the Hyundai one is as good as it but how it would be far superior is beyond me.

Also in general I never understood how Hyundai are so popular maybe the 1.6 Diesel engine is good in them. But out of the three my parents had. The 2.2 was a good engine in the Santa Fe but is proven to be unreliable when the mileage gets up on them. That and the fact we only ever got 28-30mpg which is a joke. Then the 10 reg ix35 they had the 2.0 diesel which was suppose to be far more efficient done 35mpg max that and the fact it was seriously loud when reved at all worst diesel I've ever heard in a modern car. Maybe they have improved in recent years recent years I don't know . As for them being cheap in previous years a Santa Fe was 50k euro in 2007 I wouldn't call that cheap.

Talking about the results I am surprised how far ahead Toyota are I knew they were popular but didn't think they were that popular. Anyway it's good to see car sales increase.

JohnBoy26

Stallingrad wrote: »

I'm not talking about market share, obviously Toyota dominate there, but they seem incapable of producing cars that people actually desire. Mazda shows that a Japanese firm can deliver on this.

If Toyota are dominating market share doesn't that mean that their cars are more desirable than Mazdas?

Also Toyota aren't incapable of making nice cars. I know they collaborated with subaru but the gt86 is a nice car, a very nice car.

JohnBoy26

Bpmull wrote: »

I don't know how you would possibly say that. When in terms of reliability and economy the 1.6tdi vag engine has to be one of the top Diesel engines on irish roads at the moment. Maybe the Hyundai one is as good as it but how it would be far superior is beyond me.

Also in general I never understood how Hyundai are so popular maybe the 1.6 Diesel engine is good in them. But out of the three my parents had. The 2.2 was a good engine in the Santa Fe but is proven to be unreliable when the mileage gets up on them. That and the fact we only ever got 28-30mpg which is a joke. Then the 10 reg ix35 they had the 2.0 diesel which was suppose to be far more efficient done 35mpg max that and the fact it was seriously loud when reved at all worst diesel I've ever heard in a modern car. Maybe they have improved in recent years recent years I don't know . As for them being cheap in previous years a Santa Fe was 50k euro in 2007 I wouldn't call that cheap.

Talking about the results I am surprised how far ahead Toyota are I knew they were popular but didn't think they were that popular. Anyway it's good to see car sales increase.

The 1.6crdi is a very decent unit to be fair. I wouldn't call a 1.6 tdi a bad unit though. I have seen a few premature water pump failures on them though.

Panda Moanium

Interesting that Toyota is that far ahead of the rest at this stage. They had a reasonably poor 2013 relative to 2012 in comparison to VW and Ford so will they sustain this early lead? I'd suspect that more so than other brands, there would be a reasonable amount of 'traditional' Toyota buyers who only ever buy Toyota and always place their orders in good time for early delivery in the new year.

You'd suspect also that a higher percentage of the early registrations are to private owners rather than fleet which might account for the ix35 being reported as the best selling model so far. There's no doubt though that Hyundai in particular is continuing to make great strides year on year.

Will be interesting to see how month end figures pan out. Expect a huge surge from VW over the last couple of days of January.......for some reason VW buyers in particular love to purchase just before month-end....:)

lomb

What do people see in Toyota? . They reakon they are the best built cars in the world. I doubt that personally. I also doubt they have the best resale values. Id rather a used 3 year old Passat to sell than an Avensis. Very poor interiors, bland styling and not a great image either..

JohnBoy26

lomb wrote: »

What do people see in Toyota? . They reakon they are the best built cars in the world. I doubt that personally. I also doubt they have the best resale values. Id rather a used 3 year old Passat to sell than an Avensis. Very poor interiors, bland styling and not a great image either..

The best built cars in the world thing and the best resale value are all marketing BS by Toyota Ireland.

people buy into this because they remember how reliable and well built their friends/relatives corollas/carinas were years ago.

To be fair the older toyotas were worthy of the best built car tag. The newer toyota's however aren't Imo. They are very average and shouldn't be called the best built cars in the world. It's false advertising Imo as Toyota Ireland are basing it on an outdated study done in 1990 which afaik had nothing to do with build quality, instead being based an manufacturing efficiency.

MuppetCheck

Bpmull wrote: »

I don't know how you would possibly say that. When in terms of reliability and economy the 1.6tdi vag engine has to be one of the top Diesel engines on irish roads at the moment. Maybe the Hyundai one is as good as it but how it would be far superior is beyond me.

It's smoother, more powerful, has better power delivery and in my hands was more economical. Now if only you could put that engine in a decently specced new Golf instead of a Ceed it would be a far better proposition for an econobox.

Bpmull

MuppetCheck wrote: »

It's smoother, more powerful, has better power delivery and in my hands was more economical. Now if only you could put that engine in a decently specced new Golf instead of a Ceed it would be a far better proposition for an econobox.

Hyundai Diesel engines must of come on a lot. Because building economical didn't seem to be there aim a few years ago. I've never been in an i30 tbh I just never really liked the look of any of the Hyundai/ Kia stuff specially inside. Just my opinion they seem to be well built and the ones we had never caused any trouble but I just didn't find them very refined and efficiency wasn't there. I still see our 07 Santa Fe the odd time. Clearly though that 1.6 engine they have must be a big improvement. I'd still buy a golf all day long before I'd buy an i30 or ceed but that's just my preference.

Stallingrad

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

If Toyota are dominating market share doesn't that mean that their cars are more desirable than Mazdas?

Also Toyota aren't incapable of making nice cars. I know they collaborated with subaru but the gt86 is a nice car, a very nice car.

Depends how you define desire. I doubt very much Toyota buyers long or lust one, in the same way they don't about a fridge, but millions are bought annually.

JohnBoy26

Stallingrad wrote: »

Depends how you define desire. I doubt very much Toyota buyers long or lust one, in the same way they don't about a fridge, but millions are bought annually.

how would you define desire?

Being nice looking doesn't exactly make a car desirable. There are many other factors involved.

bazz26

lomb wrote: »

What do people see in Toyota? . They reakon they are the best built cars in the world. I doubt that personally. I also doubt they have the best resale values. Id rather a used 3 year old Passat to sell than an Avensis. Very poor interiors, bland styling and not a great image either..

VW used similar marketing nonsense a few years back when they fed gullible people tripe with the slogan "if only everything in life was as reliable as a Volkswagen." They were anything but.

And for me a Passat is only slightly less bland than an Avensis especially when it comes to conservative styling and how they drive. Very few cars in this class are stylish.