Maruti's sales in the first month of the current fiscal reduced to 30,016 units from 31,351 units in the corresponding period the previous year. MUL recorded negative sales growth with market share plummeting to an all-time low of 56.3 per cent from a high of 74.6 per cent a year ago.

Other companies such as Hyundai, Telco, Daewoo, Ford and General Motors are increasingly eating into MUL's market share. Mercedes Benz, Hindustan Motors and Fiat India also witnessed negative sales during the month.

Passenger sales in April dipped compared to March sales at 73,090 units. Hindustan Motors declined by 16.6 per cent to 1,559 units in April this year compared to 1,869 units in the corresponding period the previous year.

Italian auto giant Fiat SpA also witnessed the same trend by posting a 18.8 per cent drop in sales at 1,191 units against 1,467 units in April last year. Its market share also declined to 2.2 per cent from 3.5 per cent.

Contrary to the negative sales growth by these auto majors, Hyundai Motor India sales increased to 7305 units as against 3531 units in the corresponding period the previous year. Ford India saw its sales mounting by 9.6 times to 1,592 units during the month, mainly due to the sales of its mid-sized car `Ikon'.

Riding on the success of its small car Indica, Tata Engineering posted 200 per cent growth in sales to 5,211 units during the month from 1743 units in the same month the previous year. Its market share improved to 9.7 per cent from 4.1 per cent. Car sales of Korean chaebol Daewoo Motors also jumped up sharply to 5,067 units in the first month of 2000-01.

Sales of Japanese major Honda Siel Cars India also increased by 57 per cent to 923 units.

Luxury car major Mercedes Benz India sales declined by 10 per cent to 62 units during the first month of the current fiscal compared to 69 units in the same month last year.

In the MUV segment, Maruti sales dipped by 73 per cent to 168 units during the month from 631 units sold in the same month of last year.

M&M's MUV sales were also down by 18 per cent at 2126 units from 1,802 units in April 1999-2000. Commercial vehicles segment grew by 10.5 per cent to 8658 units in the month mainly on the strength of light commercial vehicles (LCV) segment which increased by 20.9 per cent. LCV sales were 3465 units in April this year from 2865 units a year ago. Sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles, however, recorded a marginal 4.5 per cent growth at 5193 units.