F&I Management & Training

Nissan believes the demand for larger cars will return and the sector will survive the economic downturn.

The Japanese carmaker's vice president for product planning Pierre Loing said long term demand for bigger cars would endure the current economic conditions.

Loing maintained that supermini and smaller sized cars couldn't meet all buyers' needs.

"There is a debate in the industry whether it (downsizing) is a fundamental trend," he said.

"My belief is that sentiment explains the collapse of the market. Cars are about individual mobility, and not everybody can have individual mobility in a car like the Nissan Pixo."

He said that established technologies were already in place to bring down CO2 for bigger models, and that in the longer term sales would be driven by customer needs.

"The volume decreases are very much due to economic conditions. If the economy rebounds they will improve."

Despite a precipitous decline in sales, he suggested that the British market would not become as polarised as Spain, where new car sales have dropped dramatically, and "you don't sell big cars".

DATED: 23.10.08

FEED: MT