Indian car sales for October 2016: Winners and losers

The festive season is on and with a good monsoon backing the economy, car sales were expected to go through the roof in October. While the numbers did go through the roof for some cars, some were left behind in this fierce competition. So we run through all the numbers to find out which of the cars managed to ride the wave and which ones couldn’t really get moving.

Winners: 

Honda Amaze

The Honda Amaze facelift seems to have worked well with car sales climbing steadily over the past two months. The Amaze sold 4009 units in October which is the highest over the last six months, up from 2861 units in September 2016. But the sales are nowhere close to the 6971 units it sold in October 2015. 

Mahindra Bolero

After a good monsoon, the rural demand will be on a high and it certainly reflects in sales of India’s favourite utility vehicle – the Mahindra Bolero. The Bolero sales have surpassed the 7754 units sold last year going on to sell 8323 units in October this year. The month-on-month sales have grown by 45 per cent, up from 5744 units sold last month. 

Tata Tiago

The Tiago is turning out to be the blue-eyed boy amongst Tata cars breaching the 6000 sales per month mark this October. Launched earlier this year, the new hatchback from Tata has grown steadily helping the Indian conglomerate change its image to a modern car maker. Selling 6108 units, the sales were up by 34 per cent over the 4557 units of September 2016.

Losers:

Honda BR-V

The Honda BR-V continues with its downfall, just managing to nudge past the 1000 cars per month mark in terms of sales. At 1070 units sold in October, the sales have almost halved as compared to September 2016. While it does offer seven-seats, the Hyundai Creta has been creaming the segment with its top-notch build and feature list.

Ford Aspire

After the spike owing to the massive price cuts, the Ford Aspire sales have tanked again in spite of the festive rush. In comparison to the Honda Amaze, Maruti Dzire and the Hyundai Xcent, Ford’s expensive-to-maintain image seems to keeping aspiring buyers away from the blue oval brand. On the other hand, sales of its hatchback sibling, the Figo, are steadily increasing.

Maruti Alto

Ideally, this car can never be on the loser’s list, at least in India. But here it is. With sales down to 18,000 units from 27,000 units last month, the dip is almost one-third. But that is because of the production scheduling and not because of the lack of demand. And that is also the reason why the Ritz has sold only five units as compared to the 2515 units last month.