The number of cars being sold in Westmeath has fallen by 50 per cent in the past year, according to new figures released by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI ).
Westmeath experienced one of the largest drops in the country in the number of new registrations, when figures for July 2011 are compared with the same month the previous year.
In July 2011, just 52 cars were registered in the county, a drop of over 50 per cent from last year, when 105 units were registered in July 2010.
Westmeath’s percentage share of the national figures also fell from 1.66 per cent to 1.28 per cent over the year to July 2011.
When figures for the first seven months of 2011 are compared with the same period in 2010, Westmeath experienced a drop of 13 per cent in the number of cars registered, from 1,361 to 1,200.
Nationally, there was a 35 per cent drop in the number of cars newly registered from July 2010 to July 2011. The county experiencing the most dramatic decrease was Longford, with the number of cars registered dropping by 59 per cent, from 44 in July 2010 to just 18 in July this year.
However, overall this year the number of cars registered is up 10 per cent, a testament to the popularity of the Government Scrappage Scheme.
Volkswagen remains the best selling model, with 13.7 per cent of the total market share, up from 11.4 per cent the previous year. It is closely followed by Ford, which accounted for 12.2 per cent of the cars registered in July 2011, up from 11 per cent. Toyota experienced a significant dive in popularity from 13.6 per cent to 9.7 per cent over the year.
