October car sales grow 14%, bikes down by 3%

Healthy discount offers and softened interest rates helped the passenger car segment grow by 14.60 per cent in October. The more-venerable two-wheeler sales fell to a 3.73 per cent.

Leading the race in the car segment was Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) with upbeat sales performance from its SX4 and Swift models.

Overall, the company sold more than 64,000 units last month, an increase of 15 per cent over the corresponding month of the previous year.

General Motors logged impressive sales during the reporting month on account of lucrative discount offered on the small car, Spark. The company witnessed 95 per cent growth at 6,139 units last month.

Sales of utility and car manufacturer Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) grew by 60 per cent, thanks mainly to newer sales added by the Logan model. The company sold 18,925 units in October.

Overall sales of passenger vehicles, which also include utility and multi-purpose vehicles, grew by 16.68 per cent at 138,504 units.

Though the fall in motorcycle sales slowed down last month compared with the that in the previous months, the industry sold 657,874 units, a decline of 6.75 per cent.

The fall in the previous few months for the motorcycle segment was 18, 13 and 17 per cent in September, August and July, respectively. The decline in the aggregate sale of two-wheelers was restricted to a fall of 3.73 per cent at 793,420 units.

India's largest two-wheeler maker Hero Honda saw 0.42 per cent growth for the month, selling 365,022 units. In comparison, arch-rivals Bajaj Auto witnessed 1 per cent slide for the opening month of the third quarter. The company sold 248,307 units during the period.

TVS Motors, meanwhile, continued to post declining sales at 129,614 units, a fall of 9 per cent over 142,325 units for the two comparable months.

Although motorcycle sales continued to slide, the scooters and scooterrette segment grew by 16.62 per cent for the month. The overall two-wheeler category declined by just 3.73 per cent last month as compared to the October '06.

"A slowdown in fall of absolute sales numbers for the two-wheeler sector is currently shown in the industry figures. This is primarily due to the new launch from Bajaj Auto and also due to better flexible options provided by finance companies. In the car segment, Maruti has registered good growth through its latest models and this has provided a respectable growth chart for the whole sector", said a Mumbai based auto analyst.