Motor industry asked for a change to registration system to help car sales

An appeal from the motor industry to change Ireland’s car registration numbers system to allow for a broader distribution of new car sales throughout the year seems to have been ignored.

Industry bosses have complained for years that the current system, which sees new car sales taking place, predominantly in the first three to six months of the year, puts undue pressure on their businesses.

The Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) produced figures, which showed that 54 per cent of new car sales took place in the first three months of the year, with 70 per cent of sales being accounted for in the first six months.

Motorists would often appear at car showrooms wanting the latest registration plate for that year, no matter what car came attached to it. However, economic times have changed and there is evidence to suggest that consumers are now trying to avoid new cars.

Managing Director of Ford Ireland, Eddie Murphy, believes that the current registration plates are easy to comprehend, but they do present there own problems. He said, “Our current system is easy to understand and is a big driver of sales. However, if there is a bad start to the year, it means that the State’s revenue will have no chance to recover, as sales in the second half are so low. It is a high-risk system.”

Mr Murphy went on to say the National Car Test (NCT) was also suffering under the present system. He said, “The National Car Test system is also based on date of first registration and suffers huge backlogs in the early part of the year, with a very quiet final few months.”

The company that operates the NCT, Applus, agrees that a new registration system would help them. A spokesperson said a change would ‘spread the NCT Tests more evenly across the year’.

However, there appears to be no plans to change the registration system in Ireland, which has been in place for the past 23 years. A spokesperson for the Revenue Commissioners said, “There is no plan, at present, to review the current registration system.”

Author: Lee Sibbald, October 12th, 2010
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