Nov car sales rise in Europe; 2010 fears linger

* French Nov car sales up 48.4 percent * Spanish Nov car sales up 37.3 percent * Italian Nov car sales up 30 percent - govt By Helen Massy-Beresford PARIS, Dec 1 (Reuters) - November car sales data paved the way for a strong year-end in major European markets, although a weak comparison base last year, and subsidies that will run out soon, mean the longer-term future for carmakers remains unclear. Governments stepped in to help struggling carmakers earlier this year, implementing scrapping incentive schemes whereby drivers get cash bonuses for trading in old cars for new models. However, as the schemes gradually dwindle -- the scheme in Germany, Europe's largest car market, has already finished -- carmakers are worried about a second sales dip. "The basis of comparison last year was ultra-weak, so we can expect that November and December too should be ultra-strong months across Europe," said Societe Generale analayst Eric-Alain Michelis. In France, car sales rose 48.4 percent in November and 7.6 percent in the first 11 months, carmakers' association the CCFA said. "November 2008 was the low point of the cycle," CCFA President Xavier Fels told a news conference. "The question of the low basis of comparison is very important," Fels added, referring to the last quarter of 2008, when carmakers were forced to slash production drastically as demand for new cars nose-dived, in an attempt to limit the build-up of costly stocks of unsold vehicles. Nevertheless, "compared with 2007, the results were not as bad as all that," Fels said, adding that for the past four months the CCFA had been noticing a confirmed recovery. Elsewhere car sales were also on the rise. Italian industry minister Claudio Scajola told reporters after meeting Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne that Italy car sales rose 30 percent in November. Fiat's Marchionne said after the meeting tha Fiat was sticking to its plan to stop production at its Termini Imerese plant and that an annual car production figure in Italy of 900,000 units was "not astronomical". In Spain, which introduced its scrapping incentive scheme in May, car sales rose 37.3 percent in November. U.S. car sales data due out later on Tuesday are expected to show a slow recovery. For a PREVIEW on U.S. car sales click on (Reporting by Alberto Sisto, Jo Winterbottom, Gilles Guillaume, Matthias Blamont, Jason Webb and Helen Massy-Beresford; Editing by Hans Peters) ((helen.beresford@thomsonreuters.com; +33 1 49 49 56 83; Reuters Messaging: helen.beresford.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))Printable version larger | smaller Business