Official figures show that the number of new cars licensed in July fell by 73% compared with the same month last year.
The Central Statistics Office said there were 4,355 new cars licensed in July, down from 16,175 a year earlier. For the first seven months of this year, new car figures are showing a drop of 64% to 46,270.
The figures are broadly in line with those from the industry released earlier this month, which showed a 77% annual fall in July. In June, the annual fall had eased to 34.4%, according to the CSO.
At that time, the Society of the Irish Motor Industry said the drop was not as dramatic as it might appear, as there was an unusual increase in July last year. Many people are believed to have held off on buying new cars last year until after the introduction of a new car tax system in that month.
A breakdown of today's new car figures for July showed that Volkswagen led the way with 617, followed by Ford (602) and Opel (482).
Meanwhile, the CSO figures show that just 839 new goods vehicles were licensed in the month, a drop of almost 65% from a year earlier.
