New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the number of new cars licensed in January fell by 3.2% while the number of used, or imported, cars jumped 18%.
A total of 25,813 new private cars were licensed in January of this year, compared to 26,668 in January 2017.
The number of used private cars licensed in January 2018 stood at 8,025, up from 6,798 the same time last year.
Today's CSO figures also show that Toyota was the most popular make of new private car licensed in January, followed by Ford, Hyundai, Nissan and Volkswagen.
These five makes represent 51.1% of all new private cars licensed in January.
Meanwhile, the Hyundai Tucson was the most popular model of new private car licensed, followed by the Nissan Qashqai and the Ford Focus.
The CSO also noted that over half of new private cars licensed last month were diesel (55.8%). 36.6% of new cars were petrol and 7.6% were electric/hybrid.
