In the month of February 2013, it was noticed that the car sales went down in India, after which the auto companies in the country started offering huge discounts on almost all models. However despite offering huge discounts, car sales continued to drop, even in the month of March.
The month of March 2013 had seen a fall of more than 20% in car sales, which was led by a sharp decline posted by some of the leading car makers, including Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Tata Motors and Volkswagen. AS suffering macroeconomic environment, fluctuating fuel prices and increasing interest rates have been responsible for forcing customers to defer car purchases.
The sales of the vehicles continued to remain low despite companies offering historic high discounts, by up to 10% to 15%. The experts from the industry opine that the situation is likely to continue in the first half of the next financial year as well.
According to Umesh Karnem, an auto analyst, the year had started off on a decent note, but the prolonged slowdown and no positive response forced the companies to post the lowest sales figure in the last four to five years. The slowdown in sales was seen in all the segments of vehicles, including two wheelers, trucks and cars.