Over 3,250 cars were licenced for the first time.

Imported used cars also saw a large increase, up almost 60 percent, to over 4,730.

In all, there were 66,570 new private cars licensed in the year to the end of September 2013.

That's a drop of 7 percent when compared to the same period in 2012.

This come on the back of a new survey released today showing that the car is still the dominant mode of transport in Ireland.new

The survey was released by the National Transport Authority and shows 7 in 10 people use their car for day to day journeys.

The figure is highest in rural areas, where public transport alternatives are limited.

Cork is the most car dependent city, with over 85 percent of people saying they had used it in the past week - the figure was lowest in Dublin and Limerick, at seventy percent.

Half of people questioned for the study had walked in the past week, one in seven had used the bus while 3 percent said cycling was the mode of transport they had used most often in the last seven days.

Six thousand households spread across the country participated in the study.