Official figures show that the number of new cars licensed in the first three months of this year was down by more than 50,000 compared with the same period last year.
The Central Statistics Office said the figure for the first three months of this year was 27,140, down 65% from 77,441 a year earlier.
For the month of March, just 7,348 new cars were licensed, a drop of almost 64% from the 20,190 recorded in March last year.
The number of new goods vehicles licensed in March showed an even bigger annual fall - down 76% to 915.
The CSO figures also show that 58% of the new cars licensed in March were diesel. A breakdown of new cars showed Nissan top with 1,070, followed by Toyota (993) and Volkswagen (971).
