Figures for new car registrations in January reveal a significant increase in the number of privately imported cars so far this year.
Last month there were 145 privately imported cars registered as new vehicles in Ireland, which is an increase of over 500 per cent on January 2003 figures.
Four marques - BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Toyota - made up the majority of these private imports. However, the main bulk of the Audis brought into Ireland during last month were A8 models currently being used to transport EU ministers during Ireland's six-month presidency.
Much of the rest of the increase can be explained by the strength of the euro against currencies such as sterling, especially during the tail end of 2003, which would have tempted some motorists to look abroad for their 04 vehicles.
January was on a par with last year as 32,935 were registered compared to 32,680 for the first month of 2002.
However, despite the nominal change, there was a significant shift in terms of brands, as Toyota overtook Ford as the top-selling marque with sales up 53.5 per cent to 4,292 last month, largely due to the popularity of its latest Avensis model. Ford sales slipped 538 to 4,077.
Elsewhere it was the smaller marques which seemed to benefit in the initial month of sales, while larger brands such as Opel, Volkswagen, Nissan and Citroën joined Ford in recording a slight fall in sales.
Italian car brand Alfa Romeo continued to slide in its fortunes, down from 254 cars sold in January 2003 to 160 last month, while sister company Fiat also recorded a fall in sales from 1,507 in 2003 to 1,221 over the same period this year.
There was good news for some, however, as Mazda continued its sales growth due to a new line-up of models, recording sales of 1,317 in the first month and a market share of 3.45 per cent, compared to 2.55 per cent for the same period in 2002.
At the premium end of the market, Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Lexus and Mercedes all recorded growth thanks in part to updated model ranges.
Cyril McHugh, chief executive of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), expects 2004 to be another strong year for car sale, but suggests that total first quarter results will give a better indication of how new passenger car registrations will be for the full year due to changes in the number of working days between 2003 and 2004.