The Toyota Yaris Cross is Ireland's best-selling new car of 2026 so far, with 3,711 registrations from January to August, up 7.6% on the same period of 2025, according to SIMI Motorstats (SIMI Motorstats, data to 31 August 2026, accessed 28 September 2026). 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 new cars, January to August 2026
1. Toyota Yaris Cross 3,711 (up 7.6%). 2. Hyundai Tucson 3,295 (down 25.5%). 3. Skoda Octavia 3,013 (down 12.5%). 4. Kia Sportage 2,930 (down 10.7%). 5. Skoda Kodiaq 2,805 (up 8.1%). 6. Toyota Corolla 2,645 (up 0.5%). 7. Hyundai Kona 2,639 (up 6.3%). 8. Volkswagen Tiguan 2,616 (up 5.4%). 9. Toyota RAV4 2,519 (down 20.2%). 10. Toyota C-HR 2,432 (up 23.6%).
Together the top ten registered 28,605 cars, 23.5% of the 121,949 new cars on SIMI's live dashboard for the period. SIMI's 1 September press release put the year to date at 121,979; the dashboard figure reflects small later revisions.
Crossovers win, the Tucson slips
The Octavia and the Corolla are the only conventional hatchbacks or estates in the ten. The biggest change of the year is at number two: the Hyundai Tucson, Ireland's long-time family SUV favourite, is down 25.5% to 3,295, while the smaller Yaris Cross has moved clear at the top. The Toyota C-HR is the fastest riser in the ten, up 23.6%.
Toyota owns four of the ten
Toyota places the Yaris Cross, Corolla, RAV4 and C-HR in the top ten and leads the brand table with 16,913 registrations, a 13.87% share, ahead of Volkswagen on 14,250, Skoda on 12,060, Hyundai on 10,361 and Kia on 9,441. BYD is ninth among brands with 4,173, up 83.1%.
The best-selling electric family car
Just outside the ten, the Volkswagen ID.4 is 11th with 2,426 registrations, up 30.2%, and it is Ireland's best-selling electric car of 2026. Electric cars overall are up 55% for the year to 32,079, which is why an EV now sits one place off the top ten.
Explore brand share, fuel mix and county splits on the live Ireland dashboard.