New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the sale of new cars slowed again last month, while sales of used cars soared.
The CSO said a total of 4,282 new private cars were licensed for the first time in September, down 17.4% on the same month last year.
A total of 8,327 used, or imported, cars were sold in the month, up 25.7% on September 2016.
The CSO said that in the first nine months of the year, a total of 121,595 new private cars were licensed, down 10.3% on the same time last year, while the number of used cars surged 40.5% higher to 69,090.
According to the CSO, the five most popular makes of new car licensed in September were Volkswagen, Skoda, Toyota, Ford and Renault.
For the first nine months of the year, Volkswagen was also the most popular make of new private cars licensed.
It was followed by Toyota, Ford, Hyundai and Nissan (9,707). Together these five makes represent 46.6% of all new private cars licensed to the end of the third quarter, the CSO noted.
Meanwhile, almost two thirds of new private cars licensed up to the end of the third quarter were diesel.
Earlier this month, figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry showed that new car registrations fell by 17% to 3,916 in September when compared with the same month last year.
SIMI also said that new registrations for the first nine months of the year saw a decline, falling by 10.2% to 128,597.
Licensing differs from registration in that a vehicle is licensed when a valid motor tax disc is issued for the first time.
Registration occurs when a vehicle gets its licence plate (or registration number) for the first time.
The CSO noted in today's release that since 2010, one third of all private cars licensed for the first time were secondhand. Of these, three to five year old vehicles were the most popular.
79% of imported private cars were diesel, while electric vehicles made up just 0.5%.
