Petrol Stop

Year-end discounts lift car sales in December

Monday, 02 January 2012

03 Jan 2012;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:NEW DELHI: Year-end discounts saw car sales end 2011 on a modest note as most of the companies, except for market leader Maruti Suzuki, saw numbers go up in December. The car market, which struggled to stay afloat for most part of 2011 due to high interest rates and pinching petrol prices, has been trying to regain normalcy, but it still seems to be some time away. Maruti, which was jolted in the year by crippling strikes at its Manesar plant, saw numbers go down 13% in December at 77,475 units against 89,469 units in the same month of 2010. The company's mainline portfolio of Alto, A-Star, WagonR and Maruti800 compact models saw numbers remain low as sales went down by 16%. The company's premium hatchback segment of Swift, Estilo and Ritz was near-flat with a 0.5% growth. But as Maruti's numbers declined, others managed to grow. Hyundai, which recently launched a new entry-car Eon, saw numbers grow 13% at 29,516 units against 26,168 units in December 2010. Arvind Saxena, the company's sales & marketing director, said demand is expected to remain subdued in the coming months. "An increase in sales in December gives us cause for some cheer in a year that has been below expectations. We do not expect an upturn in the market in the near future."