Sharp fall in car sales

THE NUMBER of vehicles registered in 1997 was significantly down on 1996, the Department of Statistics and Research announced yesterday.

Last year, 31,857 vehicles were registered, an 8.4 per cent drop on the previous year’s 34,768.

Private saloon car registrations also dropped 0.1 per cent from 19,189 to 19,164. Of the saloon car registrations,, 12,710 were used, while only 6, 454 were new.

The number of goods conveyance vehicles also fell to 6,284 from 8,097, a 22.4 per cent decrease. Light goods vehicle sales dropped 22.5 per cent, from 7,459 to 5,780, while the number of heavy goods vehicles sold decreased by 21 per cent, from 638 to 504.

Motorbike sales were down too, from 5,175 to 4,552, a drop of 12 per cent.

The vast majority of vehicles were still brought in from Japan, with Japanese vehicles accounting for 67.5 per cent of total registrations.

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