Citroen has defended its policy of cashback promotions as it prepares to launch a Spring Drive sales campaign with a raft of extra offers.

Public affairs director Marc Raven disputes the view that quarterly cashback offers have damaged Citroen’s residual values.

“Our dealers love our campaigns – they love the offers because they catch the customer’s eye,” he says.

In 2003 Citroen sold 117,602 new cars in the UK. Last year this fell to 105,596 and in 2005 Citroen expects that number to reduce still further, due to the UK’s overall declining market and to the fact that it is no longer significantly involved with non-profitable fleet or daily rental.

“UK customers recognise Citroen as selling value for money cars because we are very up-front about our retail cashback offers,” says Raven.

Citroen’s compact C1 city-car will go on sale in June. The C6 flagship of the range will be added to the UK market early next year. Citroen has 220 UK dealers and 50 open points.