Hyundai sold 7402 units of its 1000-cc Santro model compared with Maruti's Zen model sales of 6337 units in January this year. Maruti's mid-size luxury car Esteem also fell behind Hyundai Accent. While Maruti sold 1144 units of Esteem, Hyundai sold 1243 units of Accent model.

Hyundai has thus emerged the market leader for the first time in the Zen and Accent segments but the figures are for one-month sales.

Telco's Indica took the third position with sales of over 5,500 units followed by Daewoo's Matiz at 4207 units in January.

Maruti's largest selling 800-cc model sold 12610 units in January which is significantly lower than 15700 units sold in the same month of 1999.

Industry analysts say this is surprising considering the fact that sales are expected to be higher in the first month of the year as customers postpone their buying decision at the end of the year.

A Maruti spokesperson said Zen sales were lower than Santro as the company had started dispatch of cars on January 10 after the annual maintenance shutdown. He said the company had 5,500 outstanding order for the Zen model.

Sales of Maruti's latest mid-size luxury car Baleno stood at 328 units in January.

In April 1997, Daewoo's Cielo model sold 1291 units against 1142 units of Esteem. In July the same year, Ford's Escort model sold 1053 units against 853 units of Esteem while in December 1999, Ford Ikon was marginally ahead of Esteem.

However, sales Maruti's 800-cc Omni model have spurted during January this year at 6264 units compared with 2755 units sold in January last year.

Maruti's overall sales figure during January at 26,694 units are higher than January 1999 sales of over 25,400 units. However, the company's market share in the passenger car segment has fallen once again.

During the first 10 months of the current fiscal ending January 2000, Maruti has achieved a 25 per cent growth in sales at 308,875 units against 246,401 units in the corresponding period of 1998-99. During the period, the sales of Maruti 800-cc model grew by 22 per cent and that of Omni by 48 per cent and Zen by 22 per cent.