Country's passenger car sales grew 22%, the highest growth rate in current financial year, in February while commercial vehicle segment continued to decline, registering a drop of 32 per cent, despite various measures announced by government in its economic booster package including decline in excise duty.

The data compiled by Society of Indian Automobile Industry (SIAM) maintains decline in sales of trucks and buses, indicating slowdown in economic and commercial activities across the nation. However, sales in the segment may increase in March as government increased rate of depreciation to 50% in January from 15%. Bus sales may also increase as government may pass orders to purchase 15,000 new buses in the next two years under the Jawaharlal National Urban Renewal Mission.

A market analyst said, "The February sales growth rate is healthy this time as the base month (February'08) had lower sales because people postponed purchases on hopes of a duty cuts in the budget."

Country's leading passenger car makers including Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) and Hyundai Motors did good business with 19 per cent and 45.3% increase in car sales during the reporting period. Hero Honda reported 24% sales growth to 3.29 lakh units in February 2009 while Chennai-based TVS Motors reported 10 per cent increase and Bajaj Auto posted decline of 16% to 90,473 units in the two-wheeler segment.