Festive cheer’s here for car makers

September sees sales surge, thanks to discount schemes

NEW DELHI: The festive cheer is already evident in passenger car sales, with September proving to be a good month for many car makers.

Analysts point out that growth has been driven largely on account of discount schemes and other offers most manufacturers have been doling out all through last month.

However, a robust sales growth may actually dent the bottomlines of some car manufacturers because of additional marketing and promotion spend.

Also, October could again prove to be a tough month, since sales would be almost negligible in the first half on account of the inauspicious “shraddh” period. Here again, manufacturers have already begun outwitting each other with innovative sales schemes - market leader Maruti Suzuki, for example, has lined up an interest scheme on deposits they make for some models where there is a long wait list - and this trend is unlikely to cease anytime soon.

Festive cheer and therefore growth on its own terms is expected again only during November, say analysts.

For September, Maruti continued with its good run, by reporting 13.5% overall growth at 67,448 units (59,420 units). Sales in the domestic market grew at a lower, 11.4% clip, to 63,086 units (56,606 units) during last month. The maximum growth was seen in the MUV segment comprising Gypsy and the recently launched Grand Vitara, where sales were up 52.2% to 414 units (272 units). The biggest fall was recorded in M800 sales at 5,221 units (7,680 units), followed by the Omni and Versa category where the decline was almost 13% at 6,350 units (7,289 units).

Again, the new SX4 propped up sales of the A3 segment by jumping 43.3% to 4,885 units (3,410 units). The A2 segment brands - Alto, WagonR, Zen Estilo and Swift - together logged almost 22% increase at 46,216 units (37,955 units).

After several months of reporting a decline in sales, Hyundai Motor registered good growth in the domestic market last month, at 9.7% to touch 18,009 units. Overall (including exports) growth was lower, however, at only 3.9% to 27,514 units (26,491 units).

But the second largest car maker, Tata Motors, reported a decline in overall sales of all passenger vehicles at 8.6% to 17,006 units. Its flagship brand - Indica reported 6.4% growth at 11,376 units last month whereas the Indigo family reported an almost 35% decline at 2,328 units over September 2006.

Mahindra Renault sold 2,185 units last month of the Logan (no comparison with last September possible since the car is only a few months old). M&M, meanwhile, saw Scorpio sales rise by seven 7% to 4,214 units (3,922 units) last month.

Honda Siel Cars reported over 5% sales decline to 5,674 units (5,993 units), whereas General Motors continued to ride on the success of Spark and recorded 64% sales growth last month. The company sold 5,751 units against 3,506 units in the same month last year. Skoda India sold 900 units last month.