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20 January 2003: The Society of the Irish Motor Industry is meeting today to discuss how Ireland's motor business will deal with Governments which penally tax the industry.

The special strategy development meeting was sparked by the action of finance minister Charlie McCreevy in his Budget 2003, when he singled out a narrow 1901cc-2000cc segment of cars to hit with the premium 30 per cent VRT rate.

The move has seriously affected a number of marques here, whose cars in the D segment favoured by large families and commercial fleet operators sell significant shares of diesel engines which fall into the new band.

"The industry has suffered under McCreevy, particularly this year," Fiat Auto Ireland MD Michael Howe said at the weekend. "But one thing is sure, we won't be rolling over to him in the future."

Meantime, the preliminary figures for the first 10 days of sales indicate an improvement over the same period last year. But real analysis must wait until at least the full month of January is over, as early sales patterns can be affected by the 'shape' of the first selling week in relation to the preceding holiday period.

	January 2003 - by Trish Whelan
SIMI 'will not roll over' for McCreevy 20 January 2003: The Society of the Irish Motor Industry is meeting today to discuss how Ireland's motor business will deal with Governments which penally tax the industry. The special strategy development meeting was sparked by the action of finance minister Charlie McCreevy in his Budget 2003, when he singled out a narrow 1901cc-2000cc segment of cars to hit with the premium 30 per cent VRT rate. The move has seriously affected a number of marques here, whose cars in the D segment favoured by large families and commercial fleet operators sell significant shares of diesel engines which fall into the new band. "The industry has suffered under McCreevy, particularly this year," Fiat Auto Ireland MD Michael Howe said at the weekend. "But one thing is sure, we won't be rolling over to him in the future." Meantime, the preliminary figures for the first 10 days of sales indicate an improvement over the same period last year. But real analysis must wait until at least the full month of January is over, as early sales patterns can be affected by the 'shape' of the first selling week in relation to the preceding holiday period.	Fiat Auto Ireland MD Michael Howe
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