A recent study by CRASH into the comparison of private cars registered in Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland has provided some interesting findings. Most notably the proportion of cars under 2 years old in NI is almost double that in ROI.
There are 172,000 vehicles under 2 years old out of total of 874,000 private cars in NI, which represents 19.7% of the total vehicle count. This compares to 200,827 vehicles of a similar age out of a total of 1,902,429 in ROI, representing only 10.6%.
At the other end of the range, almost a 1/3 of ROI vehicles are over 10 years old, versus only 1/4 for NI vehicles.
Most popular cars
In the battle of the brands, Ford is the most popular for NI motorists with a 12.2% share. Vauxhall follows in second place 10.8% and Volkswagen 10%. In ROI, Toyota performs extremely well and holds an impressive 14.6% share or over 277,000 vehicles. This is almost twice the share the manufacturer has in NI. Ford and Volkswagen jointly share second place with an 11.1% market share.
According to the findings, Renault, Landrover and Citroen each enjoy around twice as much share in NI versus ROI. The opposite is true for Nissan, Fiat and Skoda.
In terms of engine sizes, it would appear that NI motorists favour larger cars with three times as many vehicles over 2000 cc (17.4%) versus (6%) for ROI. The most popular category in NI is 1,500 – 2,000 cc, which represents 51.2%. The slightly smaller 1,000 to 1,500cc range is the most popular category in ROI (44.2%).
CRASH Services conducted the analysis from comparisons from the Northern Ireland Transport Statistics 2009 – 2010 produced by the Department of Regional Development Statistics (31st December 2009). The Republic of Ireland data is from the Irish Bulletin of Vehicle and Driver Statistics 2009 produced by the Department of Transport (31st December 2009).
CRASH are Ireland’s premier accident management company providing a range of services to motorists involved in accidents including vehicle recovery, approved repairs, replacement vehicles and liaising directly with insurance companies to ensure customers get their full entitlement.
Comparison of currently registered private cars – Northern Ireland & Republic of Ireland
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Vehicle Make |
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| Make | NI number | NI percentage | ROI number | ROI percentage |
| Ford | 106,716 | 12.2 | 210,305 | 11.1 |
| Vauxhall / Opel | 94,707 | 10.8 | 156,797 | 8.2 |
| Volkswagen | 87,093 | 10.0 | 211,365 | 11.1 |
| Renault | 82,524 | 9.4 | 99,174 | 5.2 |
| Peugeot | 67,665 | 7.7 | 83,378 | 4.4 |
| Toyota | 60,337 | 6.9 | 277,079 | 14.6 |
| BMW | 37,643 | 4.3 | 68,568 | 3.6 |
| Citroen | 36,641 | 4.2 | 34,106 | 1.8 |
| Landrover / Leyland / Rover | 35,386 | 4.1 | 33,236 | 1.7 |
| Nissan | 32,579 | 3.7 | 166,733 | 8.8 |
| Mercedes | 30,827 | 3.5 | 58,329 | 3.1 |
| Audi | 27,441 | 3.1 | 55,082 | 2.9 |
| Seat | 22,572 | 2.6 | 35,189 | 1.8 |
| Honda | 22,013 | 2.5 | 51,586 | 2.7 |
| Hyundai | 17,173 | 2.0 | 53,208 | 2.8 |
| Mazda | 14,264 | 1.6 | 46,031 | 2.4 |
| Fiat | 11,611 | 1.3 | 49,830 | 2.6 |
| Skoda | 9,764 | 1.1 | 41,717 | 2.2 |
| Others | 76,606 | 8.8 | 170,716 | 9.0 |
| Total | 873,562 | 100.0 | 1,902,429 | 100.0 |
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Vehicle cubic capacity |
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| cc range | NI number | NI percentage | ROI number | ROI percentage |
| Up to 1,000 | 29,092 | 3.3 | 150,193 | 8.5 |
| 1,001 – 1,500 | 243,583 | 28.4 | 777,269 | 44.2 |
| 1,501 – 2,000 | 436,544 | 51.2 | 727,080 | 41.3 |
| Over 2,000 | 151,829 | 17.4 | 105,339 | 6.0 |
| Total | 873,562 | 100.0 | 1,759,881 | 100.0 |
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Age of vehicle |
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| Registered less than… | NI number | NI percentage | ROI number | ROI percentage |
| 1 year | 84,000 | 9.7 | 52,727 | 2.8 |
| 2 years | 88,000 | 10.0 | 148,100 | 7.8 |
| 3 years | 101,000 | 11.6 | 177,853 | 9.3 |
| 4 years | 90,000 | 10.3 | 175,209 | 9.2 |
| 5 years | 81,000 | 9.2 | 173,539 | 9.1 |
| 6 years | 74,000 | 8.5 | 158,065 | 8.3 |
| 7 years | 69,000 | 7.9 | 146,206 | 7.7 |
| 8 years | 64,000 | 7.3 | 149,008 | 7.8 |
| 9 years | 56,000 | 6.5 | 145,733 | 7.7 |
| 10 years | 47,000 | 5.4 | 183,315 | 9.6 |
| 11 years | 39,000 | 4.3 | 123,440 | 6.5 |
| 12 years | 29,000 | 3.4 | 89,315 | 4.7 |
| 13 years | 20,000 | 2.2 | 69,357 | 3.6 |
| 14 years | 12,000 | 1.5 | 42,395 | 2.2 |
| 15 years + | 8,000 | 0.9 | 68,167 | 3.6 |
| Total | 874,000 | 100.0 | 1,902,429 | 100.0 |
Data sources:
Northern Ireland data derived from Northern Ireland Transport Statistics 2009-10 report produced by the Department for Regional Development. Statistics are as at 31st December 2009.
Republic of Ireland data derived from Irish Bulletin of Vehicle and Driver Statistics 2009 report produced by the Department of Transport. Statistics are as at 31st December 2009.
