7 June 2001: New car sale registrations for the month of May 2001 came in at 21.4%, down on May 2000 but for the year to date, are still 6% or over 6,400 units ahead of 1999.

"On this basis, the car market this year, should come in at over 175,000 units which will be ahead of 1999 and will be the second best year on record", says James Wyse, Managing Director of Citroën-Gallic Distributors Ltd.

Of the 32 franchises being sold on the Irish Market, two out of three of them are ahead of the market decline of this year of 23% for combined cars and vans down on the year 2000. Twelve franchises are suffering a decline greater than the overall market decline of this year. Wyse is very happy that the Citroën brand has increased its market share this year from 2% to 2.2% of the New Car market and from 2.9% last year up to 3.2% this year of the cCombined Car and Van market. This places Citroën as the ninth biggest car and van franchise on the Irish Market.

Citroën has launched three new models in the last nine months - Citroën Xsara Picasso - new Xsara Series 2 and recently, the new Citroën C5. Wyse said that Gallic Distributors would be launching four new Citroën models during the year 2002 to further revitalize the Citroën franchise and the Citroën Dealer network here in Ireland. IA