Weighed down by a negative market sentiment because of rising fuel prices, higher borrowing costs and increased vehicle prices, the slowdown in sales last month confirms the trend of the past few months. After rising 30 per cent in 2010-11, passenger car sales moderated to 13 per cent in April and seven per cent in May. Maruti Suzuki, which sells every second car in India, saw domestic sales drop four per cent in June over the same month last year, while rival Tata Motors' sales fell by 21 per cent. Maruti's poor performance follows the loss of 10 working days in June following a strike at its Manesar plant.
Mahindra & Mahindra, and Ford, however, managed to buck the trend with 21 per cent and 8 per cent growth, respectively. Mahindra's only passenger car offering — Verito (the rechristened Logan) — saw sales almost tripling to 1,510 units in June.
With a 20 per cent sales growth, Hero Honda posted its highest-ever quarterly sales at 1.52 million units on the back of 5-lakh plus sales for each of the last three months. TVS Motors' sales rose 14 per cent, while Yamaha's sales jumped 30 per cent to 36,595 units.