THE defiant boss of an award-winning car dealership has hailed the garage's blockbuster sale at the weekend "a tremendous success" in spite of vandals.

Mindless wreckers struck at Chorley Nissan, Foxhole Road, Chorley, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage -- less than just a couple of days before the big used car sale last Saturday and Sunday.

But Andrew Turner, group managing director, said the event was a winner as more cars and staff were drafted in. "They didn't stop it happening, we sold over 100 cars," he said. "It was absolutely tremendous. We had a lot of work to get the damaged cars away, but we get a transporter down and got more cars in.

"Saturday was tremendous. We sold that many cars we had to go back to our other branches picking staff up and bringing them in." Mr Turner, aged 39, who lives in Chorley, said the firm had spent £10,000 marketing the huge sale as far afield as Liverpool, Manchester and Lancaster.

Some 10,000 existing customers had been leafleted and the dealership, which also has branches in Lancaster, Preston and Wigan, had organised to have extra sales staff on duty.

Fifteen used cars on the forecourt were targeted by the vandals some time between midnight Thursday and 6am Friday when the security guard employed by the garage discovered the attack and reported it to police.

Mr Turner explained: "Windows were been smashed and dashboards ripped out. It looks like they have bricked them."

He added that the garage "may have ruffled a few feathers" with its sale which, he said, had been billed as being so big "it was going to change the state if the motor industry in Chorley".

He continued: "Commercially things are a little bit grim. They're saying there's a recession and war's about to break out. Not here."

Chorley Nissan, launched 10 years ago, has been the biggest Nissan dealership in the country for the past four years.