New Delhi: Automobile companies are still having a hard time coming to terms with the economic downturn that has deflated their businesses, even as Maruti Suzuki successfully pulled a rabbit out of its hat and managed to post virtually astonishing sales numbers in an otherwise grim market.

Car market leader Maruti Suzuki India Limited hit a home run of sorts, achieving its highest ever domestic and total sales in January 2009, a month which saw the company sell 67,005 units in the domestic market. That marks a 5.6 per cent increase over the corresponding month during the last fiscal. The previous highest monthly domestic sales were 65,216 units in November 2007. Exports for January 2009 totalled 4774 units.

In all, Maruti Suzuki sold 71,779 vehicles in January 2009, higher by 5.4 per cent over corresponding month last fiscal. The previous highest Total Sales were registered in March 2007 (71,772 units).

Tata Motors too had some cause for cheer, with domestic sales for January 2009 at 35,704 units, the highest in the last three months.

Tata's domestic commercial vehicle sales notched up 17,373 units, the highest level since October 2008, while domestic passenger vehicle sales stood at 18,331 units, the highest since May 2008. The company's total sales (including exports) were 36,931 vehicles, also the highest in the last three months.

In a statement, Tata said that feeble signals of the impact of the financial stimulus announced by the Government were starting to be evident, particularly for the commercial vehicles segement, even though the automobile market continues to be under the grip of a credit squeeze and high interest rates. It said that this was the reason that January 2009 domestic sales were 30 per cent lower than that of January 2008.

Cumulative sales including exports, Tata Motors said, were 400,260 units, around 13 per cent lower than the corresponding period in the last fiscal.

Tata Commercial Vehicles
Sales of Tata's commercial vehicles in January 2009 in the domestic market were 17,373 units, higher than that in November 2008 and December 2008, the company said. However, it was 43 per cent lower than 30,530 vehicles sold in January last year. Tata said M&HCV sales at 5,811 units was the highest in the last three months, though 63 per cent lower than January 2008. LCV sales at 11,562 units also marked a three month high, though they were 22 per cent lower than January 2008.

Tata's cumulative sales of commercial vehicles in the domestic market for the fiscal were 212,552 units, a decline of 14 per cent over 246,050 units last year. Cumulative M&HCV sales stood at 92,531 units, a decline of 28 per cent over last year, while LCV sales for the fiscal were 120,021 units, a growth of two per cent over last year.

Tata Passenger cars
The company's sales of passenger vehicles in January 2009 in the domestic market at 18,331 units were the highest this fiscal since May 2008, 86 per cent higher than December 2008 but nine per cent lower than 20,119 vehicles sold in January last year.

Tata's statement said January 2009 sales maintain the upward trajectory in sales since August 2008 when the Indica Vista was launched, except for the seasonal dip in November and December. The Indica range sales at 11,433 units were the highest this fiscal, but 7.5 per cent lower than January 2008.

The Indigo range sales of 3,973 units were 37 per cent higher than January 2008. The Sumo and Safari accounted for sales of 2,925 units, 40 per cent lower than January 2008 owing to disruption of supplies from a key vendor, Tata Motors said.

Tata Motors also started distributing the Fiat Linea at joint Tata-Fiat dealerships. The car, it said in a statement, has received an overwhelming response from the market. The company distributes the Linea along with the Fiat Palio and the Fiat 500.

Tata Motors sales from exports at 1,227 vehicles in January 2009 declined by 70 per cent compared to 4,147 vehicles in January 2008. The cumulative sales from exports for the fiscal at 30,293 units declined by 32 per cent over 44,410 units in the same period last year.

Hyundai Motors' sales witnessed a marginal drop of 1.3 per cent in January 2009. The country's second largest car manufacturer said that its domestic sales dropped by 13.5 per cent, even as exports grew by 20.9 per cent.

HMIL's total sales for January 2009 stood at 37,216 units against 37,700 units last in January 2008. Hyundai said the domestic market accounted for 21,016 units, compared to 24,301 units for the same month last year while the exports totalled 16,200 units in January, 2009, against 13,399 units of January, 2008.

Arvind Saxena, HMIL's senior vice president for marketing and sales said, "2009 as we had predicted is going to be a very challenging year for the entire automotive industry. However, for HMIL the launch of the i20 has been very positive and in the first month itself we have bookings of over 2,500 units for the domestic market In the overseas market also the i20 has been received very well in spite of the slowdown we have shipped over 6,500 units and we are hopeful we will be able to maintain our market position in the coming months riding on a strong product line up in the entire compact segment."

Honda Siel Cars India Ltd, which sells the upmarket Honda City, Civic and Accord, started the New Year on a positive note with sales showing an upward trend, selling 5,773 units in January 2009 as against 3,667 units sold in December 2008. Sales marked a growth of 57.4 per cent, Honda said, with sales of the New Honda City, deliveries of which started in November 2008, displaying consistent growth of 17.6 per cent during the period November 2008 - January 2009.

Sales of Honda City stood at 12,233 units in Nov 08 – Jan 09 compared to 10,402 units in the corresponding period in 2007-08. The company sold 5,773 units in Jan 2009 as against 7,767 units sold in the corresponding month last year. Model wise, the company's sales in January 2009 were 4902 units of the City, 511 units of the Civic, 248 units of the Accord, and 112 CRVs.

In the two wheeler segment of the auto industry, Hero Honda notched six per cent growth in January 2009, clocking sales of 3.15 lakh units against a 10 per cent drop in volumes at 2.16 lakh units in December 2008.

By contrast, Bajaj Auto reported a 34-per cent decline in sales at 110,363 units, continuing its downward trend from September 2008. Sales in December 2008 were 33 per cent down at 1,19,215 units. TVS Motor Company did not post any flat growth at 93,729 units in January 2009.

Hero Honda outshone its competition, growing at 11 per cent while the industry grew at less than one per cent between April and December 2008. Reports said that most of the company's sales volume comes from the 75-100cc segment which benefited from the price cut in January that originated from the excise duty cut. Moreover, the introduction of variants to its best-selling models such as Splendor and Passion in the last quarter also did well for the company.

Sales of three-wheelers in January dropped 11 per cent to 21,985 units.