Figures from the motor industry show that new car sales plummeted by 77% in July compared with the same month last year.
The Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) said 3,759 new cars were registered in July, compared with 16,386 in July last year. For the first seven months of 2009, new car sales are down 64% to 50,530.
SIMI's Brian Cooke said the 77% drop was not as dramatic as it might appear. He said there was an unusual increase in July last year as many people held off on buying new cars until after the introduction of a new car tax system in that month.
Mr Cooke said SIMI members were seeing an increase in used car activity, but the lack of availability of finance was still a big cause for concern.
Scrappage scheme lifts German sales
Registrations of new cars in Germany jumped by 30% in July, the car industry federation VDA said today, mainly as a result of the state subsidy that will probably run out soon.
Europe's biggest car market 'stabilised further', a VDA statement said, with the registration of 340,000 new vehicles and a smaller fall in exports.
Since the beginning of the year, German car dealers have sold 2.4 million vehicles, or 27% more than in the first seven months of 2008.
A government subsidy of €2,500 for drivers that scrap old cars and buy new ones has boosted sales of small cars in Germany, while similar programmes in other countries have helped limit a collapse in exports.
German auto exports still declined by 12% in July, VDA's figures showed, but that was comparatively better than the seven month drop of 31% from the same time in 2008.
Last week, Volkswagen, the biggest European carmaker, posted second quarter net profits of €283m - 83% less than in the second quarter of 2008.
German auto production slipped meanwhile by 5% in July from the same month a year earlier, and by 21% in the period from January to July, VDA said.
Foreign brands like Fiat, Hyundai, Alfa Romeo and Lada have been major beneficiaries of Germany's car scrapping plan, along with German rivals like Opel, VW and its high-end unit Audi.
The luxury German makers BMW, Daimler (Mercedes-Benz) and Porsche have seen sales plummet however.
Still, BMW returned to profit in the second quarter of the year, while Toyota, the world's largest automaker, posted better-than-expected results today as well.
The German car scrapping premium was provided with a budget of €5 billion in April and could run out this month.
