The number of new private cars licensed saw another fall in February, while the number of used, or imported, cars jumped by 14.5% as buyers continued to take advantage of sterling's weakness.
New Central Statistics Office figures show that 16,501 new private cars were licensed in February, down 2.4% on the same time last year.
But the number of imported private cars licensed increased by 11.4% to 8,603 compared with a figure of 7,723 in February 2017.
There was also a decrease of 0.4% in the number of new goods vehicles licensed in February, bringing the total to 3,103.
Today's CSO figures show that Ford was the most popular make of new private car licensed in February followed by Volkswagen, Hyundai, Toyota and Nissan.
Together these five makes represent half of all new private cars licensed last month, the CSO added.
The CSO also noted that in the first two months of 2018, 55.6% of all new private cars licensed were diesel.
