Glass's editor in chief Arnie Fenn said: 'There was a time when the top of the range car had a clear place in the market because it was a highly visible status symbol as well as virtually the only way that executives could enjoy the luxury of air conditioning, ABS, electrically operated sunroofs and windows and much more as standard. But times have changed and now sales of large executive cars from the volume manufacturers are coming under increasing pressure from small and medium sector competitors.'

To underline the point, European sales of the Ford Scorpio plummeted by almost a half to 14,000 units in the first half of 1996, while Vauxhall Omega sales fell 30% and sales of the Renault Safrane and Volvo 700 and 900 series declined by almost a third.