Even the optimistic sparkle of the festive season was not enough to rescue the terminally beleaguered automobile industry with general inflationary trends, the liquidity crunch and the continuing adverse impact of high interest rates with restricted availability of retail finances resulting in dismal sales figures for the second consecutive month.

Already in dire straits after registering a decline in sales of 8.3 per cent in October 2008, passenger car market leader Maruti Suzuki sales plummeted further to 27.40 per cent in November at the end of what has been a troubling festive season. The company sold only 47,103 cars in November 2008 as against 64,885 vehicles in the same month in 2007. Tata Motors though it sells only a fourth of the total numbers of cars Maruti does can be seen to be in even more trouble having failed to record positive sales growth figures since August of this year. Despite the launch of their new Indica, the company sold only 14,327 cars in November 2008 a decline of 12 per cent over the same period last year when they sold 16,322 cars. Only Honda Siel Cars India’s new model of the Honda City seems to be doing well enabling the company to sell 5,090 cars this month against 4,425 cars in November 2007 thus resulting in a 15 per cent growth in sales.

Two-wheeler sales were down sharply, reflecting both an accelerated slowdown in demand and also the immediate correction in dealer inventories which industry insiders say will continue into December 2008.

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