Rising inflation, interest costs and lower availability of loans has hit the motown. The sales for most car companies remained flat in July.

Market leader Maruti Suzuki saw the sales increase by just 0.1% to 52,911 units  from 52,839 units last year. Sales of Maruti 800 and Maruti Van, which account for a fifth of the domestic sales, fell 15% to 11,206 units. The sales managed to remain positive mainly due to 37% increase in sales in the mid-size segment, on the back of huge demand for the recently launched Swift Dzire.

Hyundai Motors India also posted a marginal growth of 0.4 percent to 15,066 units compared to 15,003 units in the same month last year. The recently launched 1.2 Litre Kappa engined i10 is likely to pep sales in the future.

HMI senior V-P (marketing and sales) Arvind Saxena said: “It has been a challenging month for the entire industry with the combined effects of increase in interest rates, hike in fuel prices and inflationary pressures affecting sentiments. This quarter is expected to be a tough period.”

Indian subsidary of the American Major, General Motors India posted a very healthy 25% increase in sales to 5,706 units against 4,570 units during the same month last year. The small-car Spark sales increased due to heavy discounts by the maker of upto Rs. 50,000.

Honda Siel Cars India  saw sales dipping by 4.27% to 4,339 units in July 2008 compared to 4,533 units last year. The lack of diesel option in the wake of high petrol prices is effecting sales. The imminent launch of the all-new City later this year might change the fortunes for Honda.

Skoda India posted a 83% increase in sales to 1,550 units in July 2008 compared to 845 units in July 2007.  The recently launched Fabia has contributed a lot to the increase which is set to increase even further with the launch of the cheaper 1.2 petrol variant.

Utility major, Mahindra & Mahindra has reported a 6% decline in July sales at 17,302 units against 18,407 units in the same month last year.

Moving to the two wheeler segment, Hero Honda saw a record increase in sales to 2.81 Lakh units against 2.01 Lakh units in the same month last year. Interestigly the sales of Hero Honda are more than the cobined sales of No.2 Bajaj Auto and No. 3 TVS Motors combined for the month of July!

Bajaj saw the sales increase by 4.4%, from 1.62 Lakh units a year earlier to 1.69 Lakh units this year in July. TVS Motors also reported a 10% jump in sales to 1.16 Lakh units. The effect of the recently launched TVS Apache RTR FI will show in its performance in the next few months.