MUL car sales fell to 27,665 units in July from 37,404 units last year in the face of stiff competition from the two Korean auto-makers, Hyundai and Daewoo, both of which reported positive growth during the month. The firm also registered negative growth in car sales during the April-July period of with its sales falling by 20.09 per cent to 1,01,112 units from 1,26,535 units in the same period last year.

The market leader's share followed the same pattern going down to 58.39 per cent from 68.45 per cent in July 1999, according to figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

Domestic auto major Tata Engineering also recorded negative growth in car sales as demand for `Indica' fell by 14.47 per cent to 3,583 units during July 2000 from 4,189 units in the same month last year. The firm's sales also went up by 15.22 per cent to 2,589 units from 2,247 units in the same month last year.

Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) recorded an impressive 46.78 per cent jump to 7,265 cars in July 2000 compared to 4,949 units last year. Daewoo motors India Ltd (DMIL) sold 4,110 cars during the month, a rise of 46.73 per cent, against 2,801 cars in July 1999. HMIL sold 28,277 units during the four months period of the current year from 17,633 units while DMIL sold 1,9912 units, up from 8,640 units in the same period last year.

Other car makers like Honda Siel and Mercedes Benz recorded 28.7 per cent and 37.5 per cent dip in sales during July 2000.

Ford India, zoomed ahead with sales of its mid-size car`Ikon' jumping up by a massive 397.35 per cent to 1,502 units from 302 units in the same month last year. Its rival General Motors' sales also went up to 648 units, up from 220 cars in July 1999.

Recessionary trend continued in other sectors of the domestic automobile industry with scooter sales falling by 14.32 per cent, commercial vehicles sales by 3.49 per cent and mopeds by 1.23 per cent during July 2000.

However, sales of motorcyles, multi-utility vehicles (MUV) and three wheelers rose during the month by 22.79 per cent, 16.22 per cent and 5.87 per cent respectively.

The vibrant MUV segment recorded positive sales growth mainly on the strength of Toyota Kirloskar Motor Ltd which sold 2,301 units of its recently-launched `Qualis' vehicle.

In the two-wheeler segment, scooters continued to attract lesser buyers with a 20.42 per cent sales dip to 73,045 units from 91,795 units in July 1999 with Bajaj Auto and LML posting sales dip of 34.5 per cent and 30.25 per cent respectively.

In the April-July period, Bajaj's sales fell by 20.33 percentile LML's sales also went down by 30.68 per cent.

(PTI)