Cross-border and parallel importing has reached an all-time high in Northern Ireland, according to the RMI.

In July of this year 29% of all new cars registered were sourced from Eire and mainland Europe.

Alan Pulham, RMI franchised dealer director, said: “Clearly this is happening because there is still a significant price differential between certain model vehicles in some member states of the EU, which is to the disadvantage of franchised dealers.

“Those in Northern Ireland have high levels of investment committed to the representation of individual franchises, based on a forecast market expectation. Today, that expectation is being devalued by almost a third. It is essential that manufacturers and importers work with their networks in Northern Ireland to bring the new car customers back to the authorised dealers through customer-benefiting programmes.”