New car sales increased by 31.6% in the first ten months of the year, compared to the same period last year.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) says 118,389 new private cars were licensed between January and October, while the number of used (imported) private cars licensed fell by 11.7% to 158,536.
71% of all new cars this year were diesel fuelled, while more than 95% were in the A/B CO2 emissions bands (encompassing the lowest emission bands).
In October 3,943 new private cars were licensed for the first time - up 27.9% compared with October 2014. 4,035 used cars were also licensed, down 6.8% on last year's figure.
Volkswagen enjoyed the most sales last month, at 473 new private cars registered. Other popular brands included Ford (396), BMW (283), Opel (280) and Skoda (278), with the top five accounting for 43.4% of all cars licensed.
2015 has marked the first year that new car sales have passed 100,000 since 2008.
