Motown December snippets

Major car makers in India either posted a drop or a marginal increase in December sales despite offering year-end discounts as customers, hemmed in by high interest rates and spiraling inflation, put off their purchases.
While Hyundai Motors, Toyota Kirloskar Motors and General Motors reported a drop in sales, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), Ford India and Honda Motor Co managed to register a modest rise. The declining demand for petrol cars impacted country’s second largest car maker Hyundai Motor India Ltd as its domestic sales slumped 10% to 26,697cars in December. It had sold 29,516 cars during the same month, last year. While some of its popular models like Verna, i20, EON and Elantra did well, its compact offering -- the i10 hatchback in the mass volume segment -- continued to falter.
American carmaker General Motors also found the going tough as its sales dipped 22% to 7,067 cars last month.
Japanese carmaker Toyota Kirloskar Motor’s sales also dipped 24% to 12,071 units in December compared with 15,948 units it had sold in 2011.
In December, car makers had offered discounts on several models to attract customers, but despite their best efforts, didn’t do well at the sales counter.
The average discount on cars had increased to 13-18% in December 2012 over 8-15% in 2011. Most of the popular models, including Maruti's Alto, WagonR, Hyundai i10 and EON, Tata Motors' Indica, GM’s Beat and Spark and Toyota’s Liva, offered discount packages of up to Rs 60,000, besides freebies with exchange options.
Mahindra & Mahindra, India’s largest maker of sport utility vehicles, bucked the trend and actually gained 18% over its previous year’s sales. Though It sold 22,761 cars and utility vehicles last month, the company remains cautious about the future.
Market leader Maruti Suzuki India Ltd is, however, yet to announce its result.
Analyst tracking the industry said that demand for cars would continue to remain sluggish for the rest of the current fiscal.
The two-wheeler market also faced subdued demand as sales of market leader Hero MotoCorp remained flat last month. The company managed to sell 5.4 lakh units and brushed past its last year’s tally by selling 1,339 more units in 2012. Chennai-based TVS Motors sales dipped 8% to 1.35 lakh units in December.