New Delhi: Car and two-wheeler sales were hit hard in the month of November and fell on an average by 20-40 per cent for most vehicle makers.

Maruti Suzuki India the biggest car company by sales in India saw domestic sales fall by almost 27 per cent to 47,704 units, as against 65,216 unit sales in November last year.

While sales of Maruti's mid segment cars-Alto, Wagon-R, Zen and Swift -fell by 26.6 per cent, the entry level Maruti 800 saw sales crash by 59 per cent. Sales of the Omni and Versa were down 47.6 per cent.

The only models that enabled the company breathe a sigh of relief are D'zire and SX4, sales of which are up 40 per cent.

Maruti Suzuki's exports however rose nearly 12 per cent at 4,483 units. Despite this, the combined local and export sales were down 24.4 per cent at 52,711 units, compared to 69,699 units last November.

Another company that saw sales plummet was Tata Motors. While the company's car and utility vehicle sales in the Indian market fell 12 per cent at 14,327 units, as against 16,322 vehicles sold last year, its bus and truck sales almost crashed and were down 40 per cent in the local market at 16,229 numbers, compared to 26,895 vehicles sold in the same month last year.

Of this, sales of medium and heavy vehicles fell the maximum at 60 per cent while those of light buses and trucks clocked a minor 16 per cent fall mainly due to the high selling Tata Ace. Among Tata Motor's passenger cars, sales of the Indica range dropped by nearly 14 per cent at 9,039 units. However the Indigo range was a life saver and showed an impressive 73 per cent growth at 3,477 units mainly on the back of the Indigo CS.

Another carmaker that stood out amid the bad news was the Honda Siel which showed a 15 per cent growth mainly due to the new City. The company sold 5,090 units (against 4,425 units last year). Of these, the new City sold 4,359 units.

Mahindra & Mahindra reported the biggest sales fall among all major four-wheeler manufacturers at 37.74 per cent. The company's total sales, including exports, dipped to 11,569 units against 18,583 units in the same month last year.

While M&M's utility vehicle sales were down 40 per cent at 7,523 units as against 12,662 units last year, sales of the Logan car, made in collaboration with Renault, were down 80 per cent to 300 units from 1,561 units last November. Total sales, including three-wheelers and light buses and trucks, were down to 10,955 units this November, compared to 18,583 units in November last year.

General Motors India also saw its car sales falling by 19.5 per cent in November at 4,307 units compared to 5,356 units sold a year ago. The hatchback Spark was the largest selling car from the company's stable, accounting for nearly 58 per cent of sales.

According to auto analysts the November sales figures show that newly launched cars as well as cars in the upper mid segment fared better than others.

Maruti Suzuki's DZire and SX4, Tata Motor's Indigo CS, Honda Siel's new Honda City and General Motor's Spark are cases in point.

Sales of Maruti Suzuki's D'zire and SX4 were up 40 per cent against the same month last year, while sales of the Indigo were up 73 per cent on the back of the CS model.

The hatchback Spark was the largest selling car from General Motor's stable, and accounted for nearly 58 per cent of its sales.

Honda Siel Car's sales also rose 15 per cent against last year November mainly on the back of the hugely successful new Honda City.

Among two-wheelers company Hero Honda Motors was the only one among two wheeler makers that managed to stay in the positive territory. The company 289,426 vehicles in November only 1,399 more than the numbers sold in November last year. The firm's sales in the first eight months of this fiscal year were up 13 per cent year-on-year.

Other two-wheeler makers were not so lucky. Bajaj Auto and TVS Motors both reported a fall in sales. Bajaj Auto's overall sales in two and three wheelers fell 32 per cent in November; TVS sales fell 12.7 per cent in the month.

Exports at both companies continued to grow.

In a statement, Bajaj Auto said the slowing sales were due to a slowdown in demand and also to a correction in dealer inventories, which is expected to continue in December.

Shares of almost all listed auto firms fell on Monday. The 14-company auto index, which has fallen 60.79 per cent this year on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) fell 4.64 per cent on Monday.