Pune sees rise in small car sales

The city's small car market has witnessed a sharp increase in sales during this month. Factors like excise concessions announced in the Budget, Gudi Padwa and the impending rise in the registration fee for motor vehicles have triggered this rise, auto dealers said.

All cars fitting into the 1,200 cc engine (for petrol) and the 1,400 cc engine (for diesel) "" Maruti Alto, Zen or WagonR, Tata Indica and Hyundai Santro "" have attracted customers in greater numbers.

Maruti Alto is said to be the most preferred small car, as it has secured over 50 per cent of the total sales and bookings in the small car category of Maruti across all its dealers in the city.

Coming in at No.2 is the Maruti 800, which is known as the 'bread and butter' of the company. "Maruti 800 is still a favourite small car of many customers and has secured around 25 per cent share in the total sales and bookings," said Parag Ohol, sales manager of Chowgule Industries Ltd, an authorised dealer of Maruti cars.

The increase in sales in March over the earlier two months is 100 per cent as bookings in the month have doubled to 500 units compared with 250 units sold in January- February, Ohol said.

"Zen, the production of which has been discontinued by Maruti, is still popular with buyers, though the corporate purchases of this model have suffered to some extent, Somu Sen, sales manager, Kothari Wheels, said. Some Zen aspirants have started considering other options such as the WagonR or the Swift LXI, Sen added.

However, Ohol said, "The company is selling units already manufactured and is getting a good response."Hyundai dealer Sanjay Automobile Engineers benefited from the usual peak in post-Budget sales. Hyundai's small car Santro's prices dropped by over Rs 20,000 after the Budget.

Sunil Christian, partner, Sanjay Automobile, said, "We have already sold 280 units this month, 80 units more than what we sold in March 2005."

Christian's growth projections for the financial year are also on the upside as the production of Santro increases with an additional shift and the company targets a 28 per cent market share against the current 21 per cent. He said, "We are targeting 40 per cent growth rate this year."

With Tata Indica falling under the central excise cut and the introduction of a new variant Xeta, sales of Indica saw an instant rise. "March saw an increase of 40 per cent over January-February. Again, compared with the last financial year, we have sold 25 per cent more cars in March 2006," said Tata Motors officials.

However, it is expected that the rise in sales experienced in March will subside at the end of the month. "As the rise in registration tax to 7 per cent, from 4 per cent, will increase car prices by about Rs 7,000-8,000. Besides, there is a 1-1.5 per cent increase in bank loan rates in the last three months. As such, the drop in prices due to excise duty reduction, from 16 per cent to 8 per cent, is almost nullified," Christian said.