With just under two months to go to the end of 2016 cars sales have finally came back to near the numbers they were before the recession hit. It’s a changed world in the motor trade over them years and in Co. Donegal in particular the change is clearer than in anywhere else in Ireland.
Three German blue ribbon brands are no longer available new in Co. Donegal. Dealerships for BMW, Mercedes and Audi no longer are based in Co. Donegal. These brands would have the highest sales in Ireland, in Donegal, outside the city before the recession.
PCP (Personal Contract Plan) is the buzz words for 2016. The number one selling car for 2016 is and will be the Hyundai Tucson by a country mile. We tested this SUV earlier this year and it has maintained it number one figure all this year. The timing of the Tucsons arrival and its payment plan was bold and it payed off in winning the title of Ireland’s best selling car.
The best selling car in Donegal this year so far, the Tucson from Hyundai which we tested earlier this year. Photo Brian McDaid
Hyundai have been here for years but it will be the last three or four years they will be remembered for. People that never bought a new car in their life bought a new car in 2016 because of PCP. It doesn’t seem to matter anymore that most of customers will never own their car in PCP as they opt at the end of their payment plan to trade in for a new car.
PCP with a difference!
This week my report comes from the driving seat of a new beetle. I am in a Beetle because Volkswagen are the nearest favourites to pip Hyundai in the manufactures race for the best overall sales in 2016. The recently revised beetle are a class act. There is something so nostalgic about these cars.
A familiar shape that has managed to stay in production for so long, the purists will say it nothing like the old air-cooledrear-engined model it replaced. But for me it’s as near as we will get to one of the great icon of motoring history.
The Beetle on the bootlid of a new model in the showroom in JJ Reids in Letterkenny. Photo Brian McDaid
Eighty years ago in 1936 there was a PCP in operation for the beetle 20 years before it was even built. The PCP was the People’s Car Payment.
Back then the idea had been for a small saloon that could carry a German family of five flat-out at 100kph along the country’s new autobahns. It was to have cost 990 Reich Marks, which represented 31 weeks’ pay for the average German worker in 1936. To buy one, however, members of the Volk had to join a special savings scheme run by the organisation KdF (Kraft durch Freude, or Strength through Joy); from 1938, the Volkswagen, The People’s Car was officially named the KdF Wagen. The was the same car German families had saved up for before Hitler’s invasion of Poland dashed their hopes.
Ultimately, the sheer quality, along with the affordability, reliability, economy and distinct look and feel of the Beetle, ensured its success. It had, though, been touch and go for Volkswagen in 1945. Although the car had been on the drawing board since 1934, following a meeting between Hitler and Porsche, the Volkswagen failed to get into production before the war.
Eighty years on and you still can buy a new Beetle now the only difference is you get the car first then you pay in for it on a payment plan.
One of two Vw Beetles which we drove their week. Photo Brian McDaid
I am old enough to remember the original beetle on the road, even remember the very early version pulling for petrol where I worked as a petrol pump attendant and me unable to find where to put the regular petrol into it. In those days you had to lift the bonnet to locate the petrol tank. Driving the new beetle this week I could not resist pulling the bonnet to see what had changed. The old familiar squeaking of the old spring loaded bonnet have gone, now the engine has moved to front to replace where the big spare wheel and petrol tank once lived.
Inside the beetle the dash is so like the old version which comes in black or colour coded like the exterior. Driving looking out through the small window has so much a feel of driving the old beetle.
The retro interior of the New VW Beetle reminds of the original car it replaced. Photo Brian McDaid
The beetle was the best selling car in the world at one time. Now the golf which replaced the beetle in the 70’s is still the second best selling car in Ireland in 2016.
Even the Golf is over 40 years old but it style and heritage is still drawing customers to make it the 2nd best selling car in Ireland.
The next couple of weeks will show which manufacture, Hyundai who is presently in first, VW who is in 2nd and Toyota in 3rd will make it to the number one spot for Christmas.
Happy motoring folks.
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