India's car industry suffered decline in medium and heavy vehicles' sales for the 20th consecutive month in October, as even the festive season failed to encourage consumers to buy new cars.

Fresh data, released by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), domestic sales of cars slipped 4 per cent to 163,000 lakh units in October this year, from 169,000 units in the corresponding period of last year.

Total sales of commercial vehicles dropped 20 per cent year-on-year, from 66,722 units in October 2012 to 53,533 units in October this year.

Vishnu Mathur, Director-General of the auto industry lobby, described the month of October as the worst month of current financial year in terms of sales of medium & heavy commercial vehicles.

Commenting on the car sales data, Mr. Mathur said, "This was the worst month of this fiscal in terms of sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCVs), passenger cars and light commercial vehicles."

However, sales of two-wheelers jumped 18 per cent year-on-year in the month under review, thanks to stronger rural market growth. According to the newly released data, two-wheeler domestic sales grew 18 per cent to 1.5 million units in October, as against 1.28 million units in the corresponding month of last year.