Bumper year for car models but bad year for sales

By Marcel Michelson

GENEVA (Reuters) - Auto makers will show off a large number of new cars at the Geneva Motor Show as they hope a product offensive can offset a weaker market in 2008, with consumers hesitant and governments taxing exhaust emissions.

The European market is already set to decline and if economic growth slows, the sales drop may be bigger.

Add to that a strong euro stunting exports and high raw materials prices eating into margins and the mix is bleak.

"A 1 to 2 percent drop is our balanced view of the Western Europe market performance this year but of course should there be worse to come from the credit crunch, this does present a downside risk to the forecast," said Jonathon Poskitt of J.D. Power Automotive Forecasting.

The annual Geneva show, which will open to the media on Tuesday and to the public on Thursday, is the biggest such event in Europe and this year the organizers want to focus on green technologies such as hybrids and electric vehicles.

But the shows stoppers are likely to be the more muscular cars such as the third generation Volkswagen (VOWG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) Scirocco, a sport compact model that was a bestseller from its launch in 1974 until 1992, or the Nissan Motor Co (7201.T: Quote, Profile, Research) GT-R sports car that pulled the crowds at the Tokyo Motor Show in October.

There will be several new sports utility vehicles, such as the Koleos from Renault (RENA.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) and Ford's (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Kuga 5-seat crossover model.

Fiat (FIA.MI: Quote, Profile, Research) will revive its Albarth badge for a high-powered version of the Fiat 500 city car just as Renault rolls out a Clio and Twingo Sports version.