Ireland March 2012: Nissan Qashqai leads at 8.8% market share!

Nissan Qashqai

* See the Top 50 best-selling models by clicking on the title! *

The Irish new car market is down 9% year-on-year in March at 13,010 registrations, bringing the year-to-date total to 45,628 units, down 4% on 2011. Big surprise on top of the models ranking: the Nissan Qashqai has a huge month, clocking up 1,140 sales for an enormous 8.8% market share and leading Irish sales for the first time ever… It jumps up to #2 in the 2012 year-to-date ranking at 2,255 units, only 14 below the Ford Focus, #3 this month with 529 sales.

Nissan Juke

The VW Golf is up one spot to #2 at 642 units and 4.9%, the VW Passat is up two to #4 and 2.8%, the Skoda Octavia stays 5th and the Renault Fluence is up 4 ranks to #6. The rest of the Top 10 is in big progression on February, including the Opel Astra at +10 to #7, the Nissan Micra at +16 to #8 and most impressive of all, the Nissan Juke up 21 spots to #10. This makes it 3 Nissans in the Top 10 and to celebrate, Nissan leads the brands ranking this month at 14.4% share!

Nissan Note

Further down, the Audi Q3 breaks into the Irish Top 50 for the first time, up 17 ranks to #37 with 102 sales and 0.8%, the Seat Leon is up a massive 66 spots to #40 and the Nissan Note is up 28 ranks to #46.

Previous month: Ireland February 2012: Toyota Avensis ahead of Ford Focus

One year ago: Ireland March 2011: Ford Focus takes the lead

Full March 2012 Top 50 Ranking Table below.