The new cars market will moderate its growth this year, after the 40% growth in 2007. In an interview for HotNews.ro Jacques Daniel, commercial manager for Renault, Dacia and Nissan in Romania, estimates a single digit total growth. Jacques Daniel also discusses the personnel crisis in auto services and the impact of the future "Sandero" model, under the Dacia brand, which will affect the sales of all competition companies, but is not bound to lead to a significant market growth. On the other hand, the new pick-up model to be launched by Dacia will not steal the customers of the most popular Nissan model, Daniel claims, while the Japanese brand will grow over 10%, despite the lack of new models.

Although the first two months of the year were promising, Daniel believes that the market will not see the same pace through the year: "The market needs to take a breather, to assimilate the growth during the past few years. It is visible that the traffic difficulties make the life increasingly difficult for everyone. Plus, all cars need service and this is a key-issue of the market. It is easy to sell a car, but it is much more difficult to build activities around it. It is normal to see growth, given the population, but the question is until when? The growth will continue, but the market doesn't have to be constant. It may stop for a while - months or years - and then the growth will return, because the demand exists", said Jacques Daniel.

Referring to the personnel crisis in the car service business, Daniel admits that Bucharest is the most affected, "because this is where the market boom begun. There is a strong competition to employ the best, for costs increasingly larger". "I wouldn't use the word crisis, it is a beneficial situation - for the workers, not for the companies. We will continue to expand, there are still a lot of independent companie