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THE LAST YEAR brought a seismic shift in how we buy our cars as the traditional physical deal-sealing handshake went digital.
Meanwhile, the dominant diesel car continued its slow decline, as hybrid and electric cars grew in popularity and SUVs continued their rise.
These are among the trends brought to light by the DoneDeal Motor Report (pdf), which was released today. Here we take a look at some of the standout findings.
1. We’re shopping online for everything at the moment… including cars
Tesla’s Model 3 was Ireland’s best selling electric car in 2020, with 724 sold. Elon Musk’s firm has been selling its cars primarily online for a number of years. It doesn’t have or want independent dealers but instead owns its retail network outright. Teslas can be bought like mobile phones, with online purchasing and delivery. If you like, you need never see a salesperson in the flesh.
In Ireland the local car dealer and their relationship with customers has been the rock on which car sales have been carried out – but 2020 shook that method to the core. Lockdowns forced all car dealerships to close their showrooms, with the loss of that valued face to face interaction. If dealers wanted to meet customers they had to do it online or over the phone. Online selling tools like web based virtual showrooms, video calls and video walk-arounds were always coming but 2020 accelerated their need and implementation. Buyers can select a car, specify options, pay for it and get it delivered to their home without ever setting foot in a glass palace.
Finance approval went online too, and click-and-collect purchasing was adopted. Those dealerships who embraced new methods did reasonably well in 2020. Out of lockdown periods, dealers worked hard to make showrooms as COVID safe as possible. Innovations like facilitating buyers to take solo test drives helped keep sales ticking over. Even now in January 2021’s lockdown, new cars are being delivered to people’s homes (under government guidelines). According to DoneDeal, 90 per cent of car purchase journeys now begin online – that’s up from 81 per cent in 2019.
2. New car sales dropped – but second-hand values actually increased as everyday life changed
The pandemic, Brexit worries, and a global economic downturn combined to dramatically suppress new car sales. A drop of 25 per cent year on year resulted in a recession level figure of 88,324. In a good year it should be 160,000.
But if 2020 delivered the perfect storm, why did the motor industry not collapse entirely? The prime reason is that demand for personal transport will always be there. Cars wear out and become uneconomic to run, and buyers’ requirements change with upsizing and downsizing happening all the time. Covid also pushed many people off crowded public transport and into the relative safety of cars.
Lockdowns, the virtual collapse of international travel, creche closures and the pandemic payment also meant that a considerable amount of household cash could be used in other ways. So when the decorating was done there was money for a car deposit that might not have been there. DoneDeal’s report confirmed 2020 as a good year for ‘used’ car sales. Second-hand values actually increased by 1.5 per cent over the year.
Brexit uncertainty, the demonisation of diesel and the new NoX tax all contributed to shift buyers away from UK imports, and towards native stock. The previous year in 2019 Ireland saw the largest ever number of used imports registered – 113,926. 2020 saw that figure drop to 79,969, and in 2021 it will decline even further now that full-fat Brexit has happened.
3. Electric and hybrid cars are on the rise… slowly
Despite all the talk and hype about electric cars, Ireland’s new car buyers are embracing zero-tailpipe-emission motoring only slowly. Diesel remains the biggest fuel source powering cars in Ireland.
Petrol is next followed by hybrid – although as nearly all hybrids are petrol/electric, the fuel itself is more popular than diesel for private cars. (The Toyota Corolla was Ireland’s best-selling hybrid in 2020, with 3,736 registered.) The anomaly whereby company and fleet car owners can claim VAT back on diesel – but not on petrol – means hybrid numbers are still relatively low next to diesel.
However, according to DoneDeal, of consumers thinking of buying a car valued at over €10,000, upwards of 70% intend to buy a hybrid or electric vehicle. This is a clear indication that the green message is getting through. One in two buyers today say they would consider a hybrid or electric car – in 2019 that figure was one in four. Motoring times are certainly changing.
To read the full DoneDeal Motor Report, click here.
DoneDeal hosts the widest selection of cars for sale in Ireland, with 72,000 on sale today. The vast majority of those, 51,000, are from over 1,000 trusted local car dealerships that offer certainty in your purchase through warranties and history checks. To check out DoneDeal’s range of cars from all of Ireland’s trusted car dealerships, see here.
Ain’t the media great to give these protests wall to wall coverage…
@Derek Durkin: Goddamn media reporting the news, despicable if you ask me.
@Diarmuid Hunt: yeah because that’s how the media works yeah….not too bright are we
@Derek Durkin: I didn’t say they weren’t selective. Nice ad hominem though.
If you choose to chain or glue yourself to objects, you should be left to protest unaided for 24 hours or at least until you toilet yourself.
@Mick Byrne: Do you really give a **** about what you claim to believe in?
@Mick Byrne: You’re only giving them ideas! Dirty protests are not unheard of in this country…
@Mick Byrne: And to ask what toilets do they use or do they tow mobile toilets with them.
Bunch of hypocrites should be all arrested
@Jim O Brien – TechBuzz Ireland: Arrested for protesting? Are you sure about that?
@Shakka1244: they’re breaching the peace so they can be arrested, there is nothing peaceful about pushing through a barricade and chaining yourself to a gate also it’s worth noting that assembly near or at the dail can be controlled or shut down under article 40 of the Constitution. At this stage their numbers are dwindling and they’re getting desperate for media attention, this little stunt just proves it. Sure their little March through Penneys on Mary street completely backfired, there was killings on Twitter because they came across as elitist and snobby.
@Peej: I think you’ll find that many could see that they weren’t elitist or snobby, more highlighting the abhorrent working conditions of the sweatshops used to fund the functioning capitalists who sell such items by mass production, shops like Penney’s capitalize on the detachment of works who are often as young as 12 brought from urban areas to big cities to be exploited for the good of the western consumer, whilst the big chains relish in the reward,.
Get in those lads the council employed . Seemed to work a dream
Arrest them all already. Waste of tax payers money. Right to free protest has long since passed
@Gareth Murran: Are you saying that anyone that protests should be immediately arrested? Since when did we become North Korea?
@Shakka1244: if XR on their manifesto are encouraging civil disobedience and not protests, by its very nature, their intention is to be arrested!! There is a difference between cd and protest.
@Jennifer Hampson: Yep, civil disobedience pretty much guarantees time in custody. It depends on whether enough people think the cause is worth it & if enough do, change will soon follow. Time will tell if they keep it up but if the climate keeps getting worse, it’ll only go one way.
I thought it already was an open house if you were in the know!!!!!!
Ruined a great event for the general public. And now the hippies will wonder why they ain’t getting support? Plant a hemp tree somewhere and smoke it when it finally is big enough.
TD are the one making the issue of carbon with this tax to handle the public deficit . Twenty per cent of that national debt made up of a deal made by a minister with IMF ad EU never laid before the Dail .
When did a minister get authority to treat his deal as law of land without consnet of Dail and Oireachtas ie legislation making deal part of law
and
How can TD vote on estiamte if the Dail has no control over what in kitty to spend whihc it does not until that deal laid beofe it by min?
Commission can serve notice on ireland to reduce that deficit (64.8 per cent in excess of the 60 per cent threshold under the Fiscal Compact Treaty per ntma report at end of 18 with loan of 44 billion from eu and uk ) as an DEBTOR to EU ??
TD complaining about not enuf spend are only putting us into deeper debt and only DAIL can change situation by TD having minister LAY that EU/IMF deal before the dail that will reduce deficit until DAIL approves terms by voting thru legislation making it part of law of state. Term that public spending complies with deficit rule but also public funds will cap bank cos share value fall cos of ECB policit we have no control over.
Minister have to acknowledge a debt cos min signed loan agreement .
But TD seem to want to have cake and eat it want to complain about govt , overspending or underspending but not taking control of the fund but seem to have no problem voting thru these estimate . Think it will carry on until voter tell local TD .. hey why isnt that deal before Dail? We elect U to be responsible for whats in kitty to spend not minister ?
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