Updated 3 November 2026: SIMI published October on 2 November, but its Motorstats model table was offline for the monthly update, so this top 10 is still the January to September 2026 table and will be refreshed when Motorstats returns. The Toyota Yaris Cross is still first, on 3,886 for January to October (The Irish Times, 2 November). The Toyota Yaris Cross is Ireland's best-selling new car of 2026 so far, with 3,830 registrations from January to September, according to SIMI Motorstats (SIMI Motorstats, data to 30 September 2026; the top five models are confirmed by RTE's report of SIMI's September release). If "best family car" means the car Irish families actually buy, the registrations answer it: eight of the top ten are SUVs or crossovers.
Ireland's top 10 family SUVs and cars, January to September 2026
1. Toyota Yaris Cross 3,830. 2. Hyundai Tucson 3,341. 3. Skoda Octavia 3,151. 4. Kia Sportage 3,002. 5. Skoda Kodiaq 2,899. 6. Toyota RAV4 2,753. 7. Toyota Corolla 2,727. 8. Hyundai Kona 2,709. 9. Volkswagen Tiguan 2,707. 10. Volkswagen ID.4 2,632.
Together the top ten registered 29,751 cars, 23.2% of the 128,254 new cars on SIMI Motorstats for January to September. SIMI's 1 October press release gave 128,288 for the year to date; the Motorstats figure reflects small later revisions.
Crossovers win, an electric car joins the ten
The Octavia and the Corolla are the only conventional hatchbacks or estates in the ten. The Yaris Cross is nearly 500 registrations clear of the Hyundai Tucson at number two. September's change is at the bottom of the table: the Volkswagen ID.4 has moved into tenth place, and the Toyota C-HR (2,520) has dropped to eleventh, ahead of the Corolla Cross (2,396) and the Golf (2,290).
Toyota owns three of the ten
Toyota places the Yaris Cross, RAV4 and Corolla in the top ten and leads the brand table with 17,600 registrations, a 13.72% share, ahead of Volkswagen on 14,874, Skoda on 12,520, Hyundai on 10,709 and Kia on 9,885. BYD is ninth among brands with 4,403.
The best-selling electric family car
The Volkswagen ID.4 is 10th with 2,632 registrations and is Ireland's best-selling electric car of 2026. Electric cars overall reached 35,182 from January to September, 27.43% of the market and the largest fuel type ahead of petrol hybrids (30,370), which is why an EV now sits in the top ten.
Explore brand share, fuel mix and county splits on the live Ireland dashboard.