Auto sales down 10% in February: SIAM

The rough ride for the Indian automobile industry continued with overall vehicle sales declining 10.34% in February mainly on account of falling motorcycle sales that declined 17.68%.According to figures released by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), domestic passenger car sales managed a growth of 2.31% in February.Total domestic vehicles sale in February stood at 742,027 units as against 827,594 units in February 2007.The passenger car segment, which had managed to beat high interest rates blues so far, clocked a marginal improvement at 94,756 units during the month as against 92,618 units in the same month a year ago, SIAM said.Segment leader Maruti Suzuki India registered an increase of 2.16% at 51,762 units as against 50,666 units in the same month in 2007.Hyundai Motors sold 14,591 units during the month as against 15,432 units last year - down 5.45%. Tata Motors registered a decline of 16.02% at 13,451 units as against 16,016 units in the same month previous year.General Motors India, however, had a near three-fold jump in sales with its hatchback Spark continuing its good run. The company's overall sales stood at 3,691 units when compared with 1,286 units last year.Industry experts attributed the drop in car sales to postponing of purchases by customers in expectation of excise duty cut in the Budget.On the motorcycles front, the slump continued with the segment registering a fall of 17.68% at 425,089 units as against 516,410 units a year ago, SIAM said.Hero Honda Motors registered sales of 247,735 units as against 267,856 units in the same period in 2007 - a decline of 7.51%.Bajaj Auto recorded a decline of 26.51% at 107,768 units as against 146,642 units sold last year. TVS Motor sales fell 44.12% to 35,410 units from 63,373 units in the same month last year.