HONDA says evidence is growing that company car drivers are downsizing to beat next year's changes to company car tax rules. Nicholas Phillips, Honda's head of corporate sales, said: 'We are seeing a move from larger cars to the Civic and our best-selling model is now the top-of-the-range SE Executive. It is attracting people who were in upper-medium cars.'

He added that the profile of typical Honda customers meant the manufacturer would not suffer under the new company car tax system. Phillips expects medium-mileage (2,500-17,999 business miles) drivers to stick with company cars after April 2002, and more employees to rejoin company car schemes.

'We see a growing number of people coming back into the company car market, and people who drive 10,000-15,000 business miles a year will still use company cars,' he said. 'That suits us because it's the area where we have traditionally been selling our cars. The Accord is doing well, and we are not in the high-mileage market for it - we are happy to leave that to Ford and Vauxhall.'