Mumbai: India is a land of unpredictability, and can the country’s auto sector be far behind? Of course not. The surprise news coming from that sector is that this year the Maruti 800, formerly the highest-selling car in India, has registered a near 20-per cent fall in sales in the seven-month period between January and July 2002.

The two cars riding the crest of sales are the Santro and the Indica. Against an overall sales figure of 1,66,093 between January and July 2001, the number has climbed to an impressive 1,81,517 units.

And the overall sales figures for the entire year 2001-2002 show that while the total car industry notched up a domestic sale of around 588,000 cars with a modest growth of about 2 per cent over the previous year, the Indica sales zoomed up by an astonishing 46 per cent.

In the first seven months of the year the Indica, a name once associated with the number of times its owners took it to the repair garage, was the second largest-selling car, while the Santro from the Hyundai stable has emerged the leader.

In what could prove to be a good portend for the Tata car for the future, the Indica was the highest-selling car in June (7,053) and July (8,528), while the steady performance of the Santro throughout the first seven months of this year enabled it to stay ahead.

Apart from these, mid-size sedans such as the Accent, the Corsa and the City in the C segment have also achieved high sales growth figures.

The other phenomenal success of the year was the Palio. The Palio and the Indica accounted for 28 per cent of the 290,000 B-segment hatchbacks sold last year. Hatchbacks are a growing segment and accounted for 49 per cent of last year’s car sales, and significantly the sales of the bigger hatchbacks like the Palio and the Santro went up to 36 per cent in the last three months and are still climbing.

Buyers are becoming aware that there is a difference between a Maruti hatchback and a Palio and that the bigger ones have useful extra space, performance and features even if they take more fuel.

The only mentionable car from the Maruti fold in terms of sales performance in the period is the Wagon R, which performed well and moved up by about 23 per cent from 13,208 units to 16,267 units this year.

Though it is still Maruti’s highest-selling car in the B segment, the sales of the Zen, formerly a highest-selling car in the B segment, have dropped by 6 per cent from 39,826 units last year to 37,427 in 2002. The Alto has fared the worst, with sales crashing by nearly 33 per cent from 22,696 units to 15,028 units this year.

The C segment has grown by over 4 per cent, helped by strong performances of the Hyundai Accent, the Ford Ikon and the Ambassador. The Accent sales were up 18 per cent, rising from 9,996 to 11,863, followed by the Ikon which, despite holding on to the No 2 position among C segment cars, has seen an over 5-per cent dip in numbers from 10,186 to 9,621 units. The Ambassador, the old stalwart, has also experienced a 7-per cent downward swing in fortunes from 9,168 units to 8,524 units during the first seven months of the year.

The Fiat Siena and the Weekend sales have more than doubled in this period, shooting from 802 to 1,924 cars, boosted by the introduction of the new Siena this May when it did 500 units, followed by 583 in June and 395 in July. The Opel Astra sales have also plummeted, down 29 per cent from 1,330 last year to 940 units this year.

But the Opel Corsa and the Opel Swing managed to check the drop in the Opel sales by registering a near 34-per cent growth from 3,412 units to 4,590 units this year. Another winner among the mid-size sedans was the Honda City, which moved up by 22 per cent from 5,375 units to 6,587 units till last month.