Diesel keep doing nicely

"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse) 11/02/2015 at 14:24 • Filed to: Volkswagen, Diesel, Statistics

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October has come and gone. So? So it’s the first full month after that diesel business and we might get an idea if would be diesel buyers are going the spark ignition route or at least avoiding their friendly local VW dealer.

So, let’s take a look at October sales in Ireland. Why there? Because the figures are freely available in great detail, diesels are very popular and VW are market leaders. So what changed in October?

Precisely nothing. VW remain on top, the Golf is the best seller and 73% of registrations in October were diesel, much the same as the rest of the year. Those into statistical analysis would point out that October sales are very low as buyers wait for 2016 plates and such sales as are made are probably vehicles ordered before the great melt down but nonetheless the figures are as they are.

So there you have it. On the face of it, nobody in at least one diesel-friendly market is the slightest bit bothered by VW’s diesel dilemna.

Have a B8 Passat. Registered in Ireland, so it’ll be a diesel. Regardless.

It’s the second best selling car in its class in October, behind the Opel Insignia (which manifests itself in America as the Buick Regal). Yes, they’re all diesel too.

JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! > Cé hé sin 11/02/2015 at 14:29

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I wish the US got that front end

Looks so much less...bland

duurtlang > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 11/02/2015 at 14:30

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It’s a totally different car.

Ash78, voting early and often > duurtlang 11/02/2015 at 14:39

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True, but I think what he’s saying is they could have at least copied the styling a little more closely, rather than altering the two cars so thoroughly.

duurtlang > Ash78, voting early and often 11/02/2015 at 14:53

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I bet you would’ve liked this rear end styling as well.

Klaus Schmoll > Cé hé sin 11/02/2015 at 15:10

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So you guys do this thing where the plates say how old a car is a well, interdasting! Is it a semi-annual system like in Britain?

That being said, I think that most VW-diesel buyers see this as VWs problem not theirs. The government can’t retroactively pull registrations or put them in different tax brackets, and even if they did VW would need to pay for that. So they can sit this out and see what VW comes up with.

Friends of mine visited me last week, and of course (dinks who like nice things) they had a new car. A Passat wagon with one of the 2.0l engine that come with the cheat code. They couldn’t have been calmer about this.

Smoggi - powered by 3 cylinders > duurtlang 11/02/2015 at 15:12

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I still prefer the last Euro Passat. The new one just looks fat.

Cé hé sin > Klaus Schmoll 11/02/2015 at 15:55

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Yes, the current year-specific system was introduced in 1987 and from then until 2012 there was an annual change from 08 to 09 and so on. From 2013 on there is a biannual change due to lobbying by the motor trade who found that the majority of their sales were in the first three months of the year so now the first half of a year is xx1 and the second half xx2 and so on.

We’ll have to wait until Jan 2016 to get a true picture of any impact of the diesel revelations but there’s been little about it yet. The official line is that current models are compliant and older ones will be recalled next year. Not many people care as nobody has ever heard of NOx until now and it isn’t checked during annual testing. So long as someone’s car passes the test they are not likely to care how much NOx it produces.

duurtlang > Cé hé sin 11/02/2015 at 16:28

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It’s an interesting system. I bet, and this is an uneducted guess, that it has an increasing effect on total depreciation and as a result the longevity of cars.

In the Netherlands you can also get the date of first registration from the plates, but only when you know what you’re looking for and got the whole system in your head. Plates are handed out chronologically, so one further down the alphabet is newer. My 205 GTI is from 1988 has Tx-##-xx on its plate, which were handed out in 1987 and ‘88. My mk2 Golf has Zx-##-xx, which were handed out in late 1990 and early 1991. My 406 coupe has ##-Fx-xx, which covers most of 2000 and a little bit of 1999 if I’m not mistaken. The 306 convertible has Gx-###-x plates, which started in 2015. It was imported from Germany this summer.

Most people are totally oblivious about the above, which limits the depreciation effects of the plates in my perception.