The Rover spokesman said recent price increases by Ford and Vauxhall have narrowed the price gap.Land Rover dealers have found they have had to offer big discounts on the Discovery model, even though sales remain strong. One dealer said the company had launched a new model while too many of the old version were still in stock. It has been criticised in the fleet market press for its comparatively high price, which pitched it nearer to the Mondeo than the Escort, to which it is closer in size. Its market share is around 10 per cent, the lowest ever, although chief executive John Towers says he is no longer interested in market share, only profit.Nevertheless, the 400 hatchback, the replacement for the 200 that was launched in May, sold slowly in its first two months, only picking up momentum in the last few weeks. The company says it has been running short of some of the cars covered.Rover's policy of moving up-market, to escape a head-on fight with Vauxhall and Ford, seems to be running into resistance from consumers.

The most successful scheme seems to have been Vauxhall's 50-50 offer, under which customers pay for half the car now and half in two years' time. "Sales will be flatter than we had expected." A spokesman for Rover said the month "is no great shakes", adding that his company had not been planning on a higher sales volume.Market leaders Vauxhall and Ford have been involved in heavy discounting to keep volumes up. With less than a week of the month left, sales are just 0.5 per cent higher than for the same period last year. This means total August sales are unlikely to be much above 455,000, compared with the 475,000 forecast by Vauxhall and Ford. "It's not really a gang-buster August," a Vauxhall spokesman said. Past attempts to organise cuts across the board in Opec have always collapsed..

GLOOM has spread through the car market as the all-important August sales have turned out below most companies' expectations. It increased its production at the time of the Gulf Crisis to make up for the shortfall from Iraq, and has been pumping about 8 million bpd since. Though total Opec production is supposed to stay level, the analyst said that Venezuela "won't be able to say to the companies: `I'm sorry, you can't produce anything.' "The market is also concerned that Saudi Arabia, Opec's biggest producer, will refuse to cut its output to support the price. Venezuela's has been increasing output by more than 200,000 bpd a year, and it has invited oil companies in to develop further fields. This has risen from 40.5 million barrels per day in 1993 to 42.3 million this year, and is likely to rise by another 1.5 million next year. Much of the increase will come from the UK, where production is scheduled to start in the new region to the west of the Shetlands.In addition, Opec production is already running above its quota level of 24.5 million bpd and seems certain to rise. The main reason, according to one analyst, is that "every time anyone looks, non-Opec production is higher than they thought".

He added: "It's hard to see next year's price matching this year's."Peter Bogin, at Cambridge Energy Research Associates in Paris, said that if Iraq did come back into the market, "the price would fall by $2 a barrel".Brent oil, the North Sea marker, is now standing at about $16 a barrel, having fallen from $20 in May. "We are very concerned about that scenario."One analyst said that even if Iraq did not come back, "the oil market doesn't look too friendly for Opec". "We believe Iraq will severely depress markets for some time," said Terry Dallas, finance director of the US oil company Arco. After the Gulf War, the UN banned Iraq from exporting oil and laid down a number of conditions to be met before the ban could be lifted: the principal impediment to resuming sales has been Iraq's refusal to cooperate with Mr Ekeus's team. Although oil analysts believe that the US will not agree to lift the ban while Saddam Hussein remains in power, the statement from Mr Ekeus was greeted with dismay in the market. Their doggedness paid off at Liberty, where they finally forced a restruct- uring of the stores group after a long battle with the controlling family.Unless Signet comes up with greatly improved interim results next week, the rebels look one step closer to repeating that trick..

THE prospect of a collapse in the oil price is once again causing alarm, as the threat of renewed Iraqi sales has added to burgeoning oversupply in the North Sea and elsewhere. Last week, Rolf Ekeus, head of the United Nations special commission on disarming Iraq, said he detected a sudden softening in Baghdad's position on providing the information on weapons that the UN was demanding. They have been trying to get a better deal for the preference shareholders (themselves included), who have not seen a dividend in years and are powerless to do much about it They want the group broken up and the proceeds divvied up. In May, they failed to get the necessary shareholder support at an egm.Mr Myerson and friends have shown themselves patient but persistent investors. On Friday, Brian Myerson and Julian Treger, the canny investors behind the UK Active Value Fund, snapped up a chunk of ordinary shares from Schroders, lifting their voting power from 5 per cent to 17.5 per cent. They had hoped to be realising a handsome gain on their investment by now, not be asked to cough up more cash.Signet investors revoltRATNERS - or Signet as it calls itself these days - is heading for more upheaval, I would guess. Hence the need to pre-empt such a move.A takeover of the Scotsman by Caledonian would raise competition fears and shock the Edinburgh establishment.