New figures from the Central Statistics Office show the number of new private cars licensed for the first time fell by 6.4% in March compared to the same time last year.
The CSO said that 16,088 new private cars were licensed for the first time last month, down from 17,180 the same month last year.
Today's figures also show that 8,078 used or imported private cars were licensed in March, a fall of 3.1% on the same month last year.
The CSO figures also reveal that 58,402 new private cars were licensed in the first quarter of 2018, down 3.9% on the same time last year.
The number of used private cars licensed increased by 8.1% to 24,706 compared with a figure of 22,856 the same time in 2017.
The total number of private cars - both new and used - licensed in the first three months of the year stood at 83,108 - down 0.6% when compared with the first quarter of 2017.
Meanwhile, a total of 8,563 new goods vehicles were licensed in the first quarter of this year compared with 8,877 the same time last year - a decrease of 3.5%.
Toyota was the most popular make of new private cars licensed in the fist quarter of 2018, followed by Hyundai, Volkswagen, Ford and Nissan.
Together these five makes represent 49.1% of all new private cars licensed in the first three months of the year.
In March, the most popular new private car model was the Nissan Qashqai.
