4,498 new cars were licensed in November 2002, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office. This compares with 4,816 in November 2001 - a fall of 6.6%.
The CSO added that from January to November 2002 there were 147,731 new cars licensed, a decrease of 6.8% on the same time in 2001.
First licensing of second hand cars increased by 324 (37%) on same month in 2001, and decreased by 2,086 (14.6%) in the year to date.
The highest number of new private cars licensed in November were Fords (566), followed by Volkswagen (441), Opel (424), Toyota (388), Fiat (367) and Nissan (361).
