Forget the flaring oil prices, sport utility vehicles (SUVs) are here to stay. Why not? After all, it?s not mileage but the sporty feel and the style statement that drive the sale of these fuel guzzlers.

Be it Ford Endeavour, Honda CR-V, Chevrolet Captiva, Maruti Grand Vitara, Tata Safari, Mitsubishi Pajero or Toyota Prado, all are competing for a larger space in the SUV segment, with a pricing that spans Rs 12 lakh to Rs 20 lakh. This segment still has significant volumes, thanks to the comparatively low prices vis-?-vis big luxury sedans for car enthusiasts who crave for a macho ride.

These bigger wheels, says the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam), sell on an average 10,000 units a month. Sales are only rising. Off-season August saw sales of 9,953 units compared to 9,453 units a year ago, a growth of 5.3%.

But the market is ready for more expensive utility vehicles, going by the pick-up in the sales of high-priced status symbols. Luxury carmakers like BMW India, Audi India and Volkswagen India are gung-ho on India.

So, we have BMW X5, Audi Q7 and Volkswagen Touareg, priced above Rs 40 lakh. Though independent sales figures for Audi Q7 and Volkswagen Touareg are not available, BMW sold 27 units of X3 and X5 in August alone against just four a year ago. This is a growth of over 500%.

And companies have taken note of the buyers? mood change. ?There has been a spurt in demand for sport utility vehicles in the country. So, it makes more sense for us to put the SUV segment on our priority list over the high-end luxury car segment where volumes are far smaller,? says Ankush Arora, vice-president (sales & marketing), General Motors India.

GM India, Ford India, Hindustan Motors and others have been very aggressive in their product line up in the segment. GM India?s Chevrolet Captive, launched in January, has helped the company widen its SUV portfolio. And to make it popular model Tavera more competitive, the company had recently launched a facelift version, called the Tavera Neo-2.

Sales of Tavera and Captive went up by 45.2% in August to 932 units from 642 units in the same month last year.

Even Hindustan Motors, the sole manufacturer & distributor of Japan?s Mitsubishi Motors in India, has added another product to its SUV line-up. The company, on Friday, launched the Outlander model, that will co-exist with the Pajero. Sales of Pajero were up 19.5% at 221 units in August compared to 185 units in August last year.

While Ford India is still maintaining its volumes in the segment with its sole SUV model Endeavour, the company has been regularly upgrading the vehicle and adding new features to it to make the vehicle more attractive.

Recently, the company had launched the Ford Endeavour with Navi-gear that boasts of high-tech GPS Navigation system, in-car chiller-cum-warmer and a fifth door convex mirror. Ford India sold 269 units of the Endeavour in August compared to 263 units in August 2007, a growth of 2.3%.

?For car lovers who have a zeal for sport and adventure, nothing, not even the oil prices or high costs of these vehicles, can hold them from splurging on the big wheels,? says an industry expert.

?Since these vehicles are largely bought by deep-pocket people, mileage is never a problem. Hence, despite oil prices touching the roof till some time back, there has been no dip in the sales of sport utility vehicles in the country. Instead, the numbers have gone up despite a dip in the overall passenger vehicles industry,? he adds.

Siam data shows that while the market share of this segment has marginally gone up from 7.52% in August 20007 to 8.1% in August 2008, the overall passenger car industry registered a dip of 2.4% in August at 1,22,748 units vis-?-vis 1,25,769 units in August last year.

However, the picture is not so rosy for Maruti Suzuki India. The company has been present in the segment for more than a year now but its maiden product in the segment, the Grand Vitara, has failed to keep the growth momentum. Grand Vitara sales have come down from 96 units in August last year to 24 in the same month this year, a dip of 75% and analysts attribute this to the lack of a sporty feel of the vehicle.

?Maruti?s image has always been as the maker of small cars. So when Vitara was launched, people took some time to accept the bigger vehicle from the Suzuki stable. Though initi-ally people got carried away with the brand, lately there has been a feeling that the vehicle lacks the sporty and adventure feel that one gets while driving vehicles like the Endeavour and others,? says a Mumbai-based analyst. With wider options, Indian buyers are becoming choosier about their SUV, it seems.