Official figures show that the number of new cars licensed last year rose by 4.4% compared with 2006, despite a sharp drop in December.
The Central Statistics Office said there were 180,872 new cars licensed in 2007, the best figure since 2000's record of more than 225,000.
But the figure for December 2007 was 1,304, down 13.6% on the same month a year earlier.
The number of second-hand cars licensed last year rose by 8.3% but there was a drop of almost 5% in December compared with the same month in 2006.
