Official figures show that the recovery in car sales continued in April, with the number of new cars licensed up 72.7% compared with April last year.
The Central Statistics Office said 9,599 new cars were licensed in April, up from 5,558 in the same month last year.
For the first four months of 2010, the number of new cars was 35% higher than the same period last year at 44,154.
The figures are broadly in line with those released by the industry body SIMI earlier this week. SIMI said car sales were being boosted by the scrappage scheme introduced in the Budget.
Of the 9,599 new private cars licensed, just over 30% were petrol and 64.7% were diesel. Volkswagen led the way with 1,222 new cars licensed, followed by Renault (1,200), Toyota (1,081) and Ford (1,059).
