Car Articles

Indian car industry was enjoying its sales for quite some time. But all of a sudden, black clouds stared hovering on it in disguise. The main culprit to blame is the global financial meltdown which has shaken every industrial sector including the automobile industry.

The Indian car industry can feel the pinch with the slow car sales reports. Car manufacturers had reserved some hope in the festive season, thinking that it will bring some good luck to them. Car companies were profoundly relying on October festivals like Dussehra, Eid, and Diwali as a ray of hope amidst dark canopy. It was expected that festive mood would fade away the negative sentiments and the thoughts of the consumers. However, the burden of interest rates, and the heavy market crash held the buyers from buying a car. Declared as a situation of crisis, most buyers preferred to retain cash in banks rather than going for any kind of investments.

This is clearly witnessed by Maruti-Suzuki which saw dipping sales figures. Maruti’s domestic car sales saw a dip of 8% at 59,127 units against 64,258 units in the same month last year. Frighteningly, the company’s volume-heavy compact car portfolio was also low by 8% as it sold 43,434 units here against 47,077 units in October 2007. Talking about the company’s condition, Mayank Pareek, executive officer (marketing and sales), Maruti Suzuki, revealed that the situation is still under control and the company is not much nervous due to the current situation. He also added that the company saw healthy sales in October.

Another Indian car major, Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) sales went down by 4 percent at 1,476 units during October'08 when compared to 5,287 units in the same month last year. The overall Honda sales during the month was 707 units for its flagship model City ZX, 422 units for Civic, 244 units for luxury sedan Accord and 103 units for SUV CR-V. The green version of Civic- Honda Civic hybrid also recorded a sale of 52 units since its launch.