ABSTRACT
The 1990s saw the evolution of the European car market from a grouping of several, more or less protected, individual markets to a liberalised, reasonably homogeneous single market. By the beginning of the new millennium, the landscape of the European passenger car market had changed radically: the protectionist impulse had faded to irrelevance and a leaner, meaner car industry was driving a booming market supplied by traditional European and transplanted Asian manufacturers as well as by a steady flow of imports. By the end of the decade European and Japanese manufacturers found themselves competing head-to-head on a level playing field and on a more or less equal footing.
