Two of the world's largest car manufacturers have said their forecasts for vehicle demand in the American market will remain unchanged despite the sharp fall in sales during March.

Volkswagen announced that its 2003 unit sales forecast would not be affected by the 17 per cent fall it experienced in sales during March, claiming the release of new models would reverse the trend.

The company says that although it is suffering from a weak point in its product cycle, with sales of its top-selling Golf flagging, new models will lift unit sales back over 5 million this year from 4.98 million in 2002.

Meanwhile Ford has also refused to change its predictions for demand in the face of a difficult market.

'We are sticking to our (sales) forecasts of 16.5 million vehicles in the United States and 17.1 million vehicles in the European Union,' said the company's Nick Scheele.

He also said Ford had increased its stocks of components due to the war.