The economic slowdown is continuing to hit Irish car sales badly. The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the number of new cars licensed in February slumped by 63.8%.
The CSO says that just 8,795 new cars were sold last month compared to a total of 24,290 in February 2008. Car sales had plunged by 66.6% in January.
Meanwhile, the CSO said that the number of new goods vehicles licensed last month fell by 78.8% as 1,098 new vehicles were sold compared to a figure of 5,181 the same time last year.
The figures also reveal that of the 8,795 new cars sold in February 56.6% were petrol and 41.9% were diesel.
Meanwhile, industry figures also show that European car sales tumbled 18.3% in February, a sharp fall from a year earlier that could have been worse but for a strong performance in Germany.
Sales in Germany, Europe's biggest economy, jumped 21.5% on the back of government incentives to encourage motorists to trade in their cars for newer, less polluting models, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) said.
All other countries except for Luxembourg, up 0.3%, and Poland, up 7.3%, fell as the global economic slump undercut demand.
In France, February sales were down 13.2%, Spain plunged 48.8%, Italy fell 24.4% and Britain dropped 21.9%.
Total European car sales in the month came to 968,159. In January, new car sales had plunged 27% to 958,517.
The ACEA figures cover 28 countries - 25 from the EU, where Cyprus and Malta are not included, plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.
The ACEA recently warned that European car output will fall 25% this year as the industry struggles in the global economic crisis.
