Small cars do well in March; bigger models show mixed results

Continuing to defy the global slump, car sales of the leading automakers, including Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Mahindra & Mahindra, Honda-Siel, Tata Motors and Fiat, went up to 152,409 units in March this year, from 146,338 units in March 2008.

India's top car maker Maruti Suzuki posted a third straight month of higher sales in March, helped by a jump in exports of its compact A-Star and strong rural demand. Maruti, in which Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp has a 54.2-per cent stake, said last week that total sales in March rose 22 per cent from a year earlier to 85,669 units, with exports more than doubling to 11,814.

Maruti AltoSales had jumped nearly a quarter in February and rose 5.4 per cent in January from a year earlier after the government slashed factory taxes and the central bank cut interest rates to revive consumer spending. This helped lift Maruti's sales by 3.6 percent for the financial year ended March to 792,167 units.

Exports in 2008-09 rose 32 per cent, the company said, led by 19,000 units of A-Star launched last November.

It also claimed that its popular hatchback Alto recorded-highest ever sales in March at 23,569 units, representing a jump of 20.98 per cent during the month over the corresponding period last year.

"So far only two cars in the history of Indian automobile industry have crossed the 20,000 units mark in single month- once by M800 and 11 times by Alto," a company official said.