March quarter, fiscal numbers may match last year's at best

February brought cheer for most car and two-wheeler makers with double digit sales growth. But analysts sounded a word of caution — despite February bounty, cumulative numbers for the March quarter as well as for the fiscal may manage to settle at last year levels at best. In some cases, there could be significant declines, too.

They point out that last February, apprehensions about impending Budget announcements had led people to postpone vehicle purchase but since the full Budget wasn't present in February 2009, there was a corresponding jump in offtake.

Luxury car maker Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) has overtaken its arch rival Mercedes Benz by selling 270 cars and sports utility vehicles (SUV) in the country. The company also launched a luxury SUV, X6 in diesel and petrol model with price tag of Rs 65.9 lakh and Rs 82.9 lakh and hoped to attain supremacy in the luxury car segment in coming times.

Showing recovery for the two successive months, Maruti Suzuki has reported a 24.08% growth in its total sales during the last month (February 2009).

India’s biggest car manufacturer sold 79,190 units during Feb 2009, as against 63,822 units in the corresponding period of the last year (Feb 2008).

After September 2008, the company’s saw drastic fall in its sales for the next three months by 7.1%, 27.4% and 10% respectively.

But, the company's sales grew 5.39% in January 2009.

After a delay of more than six months, Tata Motors has finally decided to launch the much-awaited cheapest family car 'Nano' on March 23 in India.

The Rs 1-lakh car, pegged as the world's cheapest car, will be on display at the company's dealerships from the first week of April. However, bookings for the 'people's car' will begin only in the second week of April.

The car was earlier scheduled to be launched in the first week of October last year, but due to violent protest by farmers led by Trinamool Congress leader Mamta Banerjee, Tata Motors was forced to quit from the state and relocate the plant to Sanand in Gujarat.

Public sector lender Punjab National Bank has announced a cut in car loans by 50 basis points with effect from March 1, 2009.

With the latest revision, the car loan would come down to 10.5-11 per cent from the existing 11-11.5 per cent.

It should be noted that earlier this month, the country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) had cut interest rates on home loans to 8 per cent and on car loans to 10 per cent for a period of one year

The new rates are applicable to all customers availing loans between February 23 and May 31, 2009, a bank official quoted in a statement.

Japanese Automobile major, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) expanded its range of alternate fuel vehicles by including the Innova CNG in its fold in India.

From now onwards the country’s most popular multipurpose vehicle, Innova will be available in CNG variant as well.