Cars, above Rs 4 lakh, clocked about 47,000 units in 1997-98 as against the previous financial year's about 60,000, industry sources said on Friday.With a market share of about 37 per cent, Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) sold around 18,000 units of its premium car Esteem last year as against 23,000 units in the previous year, reporting a 21 per cent drop.

The Rs 8,600-crore MUL, which otherwise had a resounding year owing to improved sales of its popular 800 cc, Omni and Zen, had launched an upgraded version of Esteem called the Esteem 98 last fiscal.

Sales of Daewoo Motors India's Cielo were also down by about 40 per cent despite a massive price reduction of over Rs 1 lakh.

Industry sources said sales of Cielo totalled about 10,000 in 1997-98 as against its previous 16,800.

Daewoo managing director SG Awasthi had recently statedthat the company would go into the red this year owing to poor market conditions. The premium car segment has been facing rough weather for the last two financial years.

In 1995-96, it had registered a growth of about 130 per cent by selling around 60,000 cars but failed to sustain the momentum in 1996-97 when it grew by only 0.9 per cent. This segment has attracted international names like General Motors, Ford Motor Company, Daewoo and Honda.

The 50:50 joint venture of General Motors (GM) and the Birla group, producing the Opel Astra, managed to corner about 14 per cent market share by selling over 7,500 cars.

GM's rival, Ford Motors, manufacturing the Escort in a joint venture with Mahindra and Mahindra, sold about 6,500 cars last fiscal and cornered 13 per cent of the market share, industry sources said.

Barely three months since its debut, the Honda City sold over 1,200 cars, while the two Tata cars in the segment - Sierra and Estate - sold just over 1,700 vehicles.

Contessa of Hindustan Motorssold about 1,100 cars, while that of Peugeot 309 sold about 1,200 units.