New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the number of new cars licensed in January slowed down by 13.7% as the level of imports rose slightly.
The CSO said a total of 22,279 new private cars were licensed last month, down from 25,813 the same time last year.
Today's CSO figures also show that number of used or imported private cars licensed last month rose by 1.3% to 8,131.
The CSO said that 15.3% of imported cars were less than three years old, while 6.5% were ten years or older.
The CSO said that Hyundai was the most popular make of new private car licensed in January with sales of 2,818.
It was followed by Ford (2,301), Toyota (2,270), Volkswagen (2,135) and Nissan (2,033).
Together these five makes represent 51.9% of all new private cars licensed in January, the CSO noted.
Meanwhile, 48.5% of all new private cars licensed last month were diesel while 92.7% of new private cars licensed in the same period were in the A/B CO2 emissions bands.
The CSO also said today that sales of new goods vehicles fell by 11.3% to 2,690 in January.
Recent figures from the Central Statistics Office showed the number of new cars licensed for 2018 fell by 4.6% while the number of used or imported cars rose by 7.5% to the highest level ever recorded.
A total of 121,157 new private cars were licensed for the first time last year.
But the number of used or imported private cars licensed rose by 7.5% to 99,456 from 92,508 in 2017 - the highest annual number on record - due to the slump in the value of sterling which makes it more attractive to buy and import vehicles from the UK.
Last week, new figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry showed that new car registration figures for January fell by 12.6% when compared to the same time last year. .
Licensing and registration of cars and other vehicles are different processes. A vehicle is licensed when a valid motor tax disc is issued for the first time whereas registration occurs when a vehicle gets its licence plate for the first time.
