Maruti reports dip in August sales, Hero Honda leads 2-wheeler growth...

New Delhi, Sept. 1 Domestic automobile sales in August showed a mixed trend with Maruti Suzuki, the largest car maker, reporting a first time dip in sales in the current fiscal and the top two-wheeler maker, Hero Honda, posting robust increase in sales .

Industry experts see some fatigue in car sales. The top three two-wheeler manufacturers have reported growth in sales.

Maruti Suzuki, which controls a little more than half of the domestic car market, reported a 10 per cent dip in sales. Apart for the A3 segment, made up models such as the SX4 and the newly launched Swift Dzire, which grew 12.2 per cent the company’s sales plunged by 9.7 per cent in the A2 segment in which it sells Alto, Wagon R, Zen Estilo and Swift.

The sales of the M800 fell 32 per cent this August over the same month last year, while that of the Omni and Versa dropped 17 per cent. Maruti’s newly launched entry level sedan even now has about 6-8 months of waiting period, enticing buyers at a time when the market is sluggish. The company’s exports grew 1 per cent at 5,795 units.

Hyundai Motors India’s overall sales grew 58 per cent thanks to the recently launched compact car i10, while exports, which grew 89 per cent, were higher than its domestic sales that increased by 33.9 per cent.

Tata Motors has said its overall vehicles sales at 43,576 units dropped 3 per cent over the August 2007 numbers while passenger vehicles at 15,573 units were down 6 per cent from 16,620 units sold last year. General Motors, which as so far been showing a robust growth due to its compact car Spark, grew by 4 per cent in August as compared to the same period last year. Honda Siel’s sales fell 20 per cent, the sharpest ever so far since April.

In case of two-wheeler manufacturers, Hero Honda’s efforts to boost financing available to its customers through increasing tie ups at regional level augmented sales by almost 27 per cent.

Bajaj Auto grew by 4 per cent selling 1,76,631 units of total two wheelers and TVS Motor Co posted a 11 per cent growth in total two-wheeler sales at 1,14,321 units.

Source: Business Line