Volkswagen was the most popular make of new car sold in September, new figures from the Central Statistics Office show.
845 Volkswagen cars were sold last month, despite the company admitting that 11 million vehicles worldwide were affected by the rigging of diesel emissions tests.
Today's CSO figures show that a total of 5,924 new private cars were licensed for the first time in September, an increase of 35.4% compared with the same time last year.
They also reveal that 3,743 imported, or second hand, cars were licensed, down 14.5% on the same month last year.
In the first nine months of 2015, the CSO said that 114,446 new private cars were licensed, a rise of 31.7% compared with the same time last year.
But the number of imported cars licensed fell by 12.2% compared with 2014.
The CSO also said there was a 13.2% increase in the number of new goods vehicles licensed last month, bringing the total to 1,681.
Ford was the second most popular make of car sold last month, with 545 vehicles sold. It was followed by Toyota (494), Nissan (488) and Opel (427).
Together these five makes represent just under half (47.2%) of all new private cars licensed, the CSO said.
In the first nine months of 2015, seven out of every ten new cars licensed were diesel.
