Car sales to cross 90,000-mark

The auto industry is on a roll with the sales of passenger cars showing robust growth in November this year as against the sales of last November.

The sales in November are expected to cross over 90,000 units compared with 84,000 cars sold in the same month last year.

Spurred by demand for its compact cars - Alto, Swift, Wagon R - Maruti sold 52,574 units in November in the domestic market against 43,568 units during the previous November, recording an increase of 21 per cent.

The company, however, failed to arrest the depleting sale of its older models - M800, Baleno, Esteem and Gypsy - which continued to decline for the last five months.

The number two in the market, Hyundai Motor India, continued with its upward swing with 17.8 per cent growth in domestic sales for November with 16,506 units as against the last November's sales of 14,010 units.

The increase was mainly led by the latest launch, Verna, the compact hatchback, which has sold over 8,000 units in the last two months, with Santro also continuing to register strong sales.

Hyundai's exports in November grew by 9.2 per cent at 8,426 units this year as against 7,715 units last year.

Ford Motor Company's revival package may not have worked well on the global front, but its India operations are seeing a turnaround with the launch of Fiesta.

The company posted 215 per cent growth in November, selling 3,011 units compared with the last November's sales of 956 units.

The company made impressive gains for the period between January and November with sales of 40,077 units as compared with 19,254 units sold during the same period last year.