Paul Willcox, managing director of Nissan GB, is forecasting a 2.15 million UK total industry volume this year.

He told AM Nissan has seen no impact from the VAT increase.

The brand is aiming for a 5% share of 2011’s market, which will be growth of half a percentage point. That will be product led, Wilcox said.

There is a 20,000-strong order bank in place, with demand particularly strong for Juke and Qashqai, and new Micra has just gone on sale with a target of 17,000 registrations for the new financial year.

Willcox wants Nissan’s dealer net-work to focus on aftersales and customer retention in the months ahead.

Support is being provided in the form of in-dealership training once skills gaps have been identified and improvements are already being noticed.

Dealers are also being encouraged to use PCPs to bring buyers back into the dealership after three years, and service plans to tie them in for maintenance.

Nationally, Nissan GB has a customer commitment in place, branded Nissan + You Care.

It has five guarantees – dealers will give test-drives in the actual model the customer is interested in, service customers get a
year’s free RAC roadside cover, dealers price-match a comparable service from a VAT-registered local rival, a courtesy car will be provided, and customer complaints will be tackled within 48 hours.

The goal, said Willcox, was to get some consistency across the 185 dealerships in the network.