While it has been fairly widely reported that the motor market in Ireland has plummetted from 210,000 cars sold in the first eight months of 2001 to 150,000 in the same period this year, there are some intriguing nuggets of detail in the figures which don't always get out to the general public.
For a start, the 'E' segment large car area hasn't been hit at all, in fact car sales here increased by 504 in total during the period, or 4.3% against the overall market downturn of 28.4%. And in the process, the segment gained market share from 5.6% to 8.1%. Most of the success, it must be said, is at the luxury or 'image' end of this segment.
The segment with the heaviest loss in numerical terms was the 'C' (Focus/Corolla) small family cars segment, which dipped sales by nearly 25,000 cars or 30%, while the 'B' segment of superminis (Punto/Corsa) dropped 24,000 or 38%. In pure percentage terms, the heaviest loser was the 'A' mini segment (Ka/Lupo), going down by 59%, but this represented a loss of only some 6,500 cars.
The leaderboards have Fiat's Seicento and Punto (right) retaining their 1st positions in both the A and B segments even though actual sales declined by a third and half respectively in unit sales. Ford again dominated the C segment, though losing over a fifth in sales numerically and just barely fending off Nissan's Almera which lost just 7% in a segment that dropped 34% and managed to see off Toyota's Corolla for second place.
In the D segment, Toyota's Avensis (right) topped Ford's new Mondeo, though lost over 17% of sales against a segment loss of 12.5%. Showing the value of having a new car, the Ford increased its nameplate sales by over 150% against the same period last year, while last year's segment leader, Nissan's Primera, halved its unit sales (but just wait until the new one rolls out on our streets next year!). Fastest improver is probably Citroen’s C5, the replacement for the Xantia coming from nowhere to 13th place with 733 sold.
Finally in segmental terms, the Mercedes-Benz C Class (left) led the E segment, again showing the value of a new model, but at the same time managed to keep its last year's segment-topper E Class in number two place. In number three slot was Land Rover/Range Rover, last year's number two for the period.
Some significant winners overall in individual performances were Skoda's Fabia (right), shifting 1,501 units against 758 in the same period last year; the Opel Agila, which bumped up from 125 units to 322; Rovers Mini (the old one), which increased from 42 to 57; Peugeot's 206 which at 4,904 sold 70 extra cars and climbed to third place in its segment while almost all around it were dropping like the proverbial winged insects. Again, the important of having a car in the segment again proved itself to Mazda, which moved 253 copies of its revived 121 (against, though, a 70% drop in sales of its Demio). Lexus did pretty well too, with the new LS430 more than tripling sales over its predecessor LS400, and the GS300 improving in line with segment increase.
Trendbuckers also were Audi's A3, increasing sales by more than a quarter, and Citroen's Berlingo Multispace (right) by over a fifth.
Again, with a new car that's destined to do very well for the marque, Renault's Laguna II gave the model a 77.4% increase in sales and fourth place in its segment. Hyundai's Trajet more than doubled units to 683, while Ford's Galaxy went from 189 to 421 copies. And showing that you can't keep a good vehicle down, no matter how old in design, Nissan built up a 4% increase in Terrano sales to 154 units. And coming from nowhere, Hyundai's Santa Fe range swept up to 6th place in its segment with 579 vehicles sold.
Losers? There have to be some, unfortunately. But the reasons can be because cars are on outrun or there are newer contenders, and don't really say anything bad about the vehicles themselves. So we had Skoda's Felicia coming down from 596 to 1, Opel's Tigra from 239 to 1 (both of which models have disappeared); Daewoo's Matiz (above), Nubira and Leganza declined their sales by over 60% in a reflection over the uncertainty of the company's future (just now brighter with the signing of documents for a GM rescue); and Renault's excellent-to-drive and very comfortable Safrane went from 27 to 1 unit with the imminence of replacement by the Vel Satis.
I could analyse and hypothesise on the figures until the last motor dealer in Ireland turns out his lights (or until somebody offers me a Rolls to review, which would be equally as long) and it would still be enormously fascinating. To me.
It would probably bore the socks off you, dear reader, unless you've managed to stay with me this far.
So I'll leave you and, for some, I apologise if you're by now totally confused.
September 2001
by Bill Trapman
