The number of new private cars licensed in April this year showed an increase of 4.1 per cent on the same time last year.
According to statistics released by the Central Statistics Office today, there were 21,444 new cars licensed in the month, as opposed to 20,609 in the same period last year.
First licensing of second-hand private cars increased by 603 - up 13.1 per cent on April last year.
The most popular makes of new car licensed in April were Toyota, with 3,370 vehicles; Volkswagen, with 2,507; and Opel, with 2,342 vehicles.
For second-hand private vehicles, the most popular brands registered were again Toyota with 813 and Volkswagen with 595. BMW came third in popularity with 488 registers.
The total number of all vehicles licensed in April increased by 6.6 per cent when compared with the same month in 2006.
In the first quarter of this year, there were 81,808 private cars licensed, 16.706 goods vehicles and 1,406 tractors.