Light commercials sales positive

16 October 2001: While sales of new cars have fallen back quite significantly compared to last year, sales of light commercial vehicles (LCVs) suffered only a small decline according to the latest figures from the industry. By the end of September 2001, a total of 34,374 new vans were registered, just 4.5% down on the figure of 35,995 for the same nine-month of period last year.

The Top Ten in absolute sales for September were Ford 396; Citroen; 251; Fiat 236; Nissan 235; VW 220; Peugeot 143; Toyota 131; Seat 65; Mitsubishi 64; Opel 56.

Percentage sales winners were Fiat, who gained 107% in sales over the same month last year, Citroen who gained 23.6% and Opel who managed a 229.4% increase from a very small base.

"This result is very good and very encouraging because van sales are a great indicator as to how the owners of small and medium sized business feel about the future," says Fiat Auto Ireland CEO Paolo Gagliardo, who noted that Fiat had increased its share of the Irish LCV market from 4.9% to 7.6%, from 1,762 units last year to 2,618.