SIGNIFICANT discounts offered by manufacturers on new cars and emphasis by Dixon Motors on a quicker stock turn on used vehicles continued to put pressure on both new and used car margins, chairman Donald Driver said at the company's annual meeting.

But the dealership group said like-for-like new car sales were up 30% in the first quarter of 1999 to 7,753 and used car sales up 13.3% to 8,855 over the same period.