In the Zen segment, Santro follows with sales of 2,400-odd units. The Fiat Uno recorded remarkable sales of approximately 1,500 units as against 603 units in January.

The Uno diesel version has been doing well after the price reduction effected in December. Sources said that around 300 Indica were sold, but the figure could not be confirmed. The Omni is the star performer in the Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) stable, with sales rising from 2,755 in January to 5,657 units in February. The Omni, available at Rs 1.8 lakh, is the cheapest car after the price cuts offered by the company. The sales of the country's largest car-maker Maruti, in February is lower at 25,177 units as against January's figure of 25,437 units.

However, company officials maintained that sales had gone up considering the fact that February sales take into account 28 daysover January's 31 days. MUL produces approximately 1,300 vehicles per day. The price cuts have helped the company to prop up sales, with the waiting period coming back in the case of Omni, Zen and 800.

The standard 800 has a waiting period of six to seven weeks, while the Zen of five weeks.

In the mid-size segment, the Mitsubishi Lancer is picking up with sales of 516 units. Honda City clocked sales of 600 units, while the sales of Esteem dipped to 994 units as against the previous month's 1,320 units.

The sales of Lancer and City were 505 and 750 units respectively.The sales of other cars in the luxury segment, Ford Escort and Opel Astra were 89 and 160 respectively. January sales were 161 Opel Astra and 130 Ford Escort.

Post-budget, car manufacturers are not likely to increase the prices, considering the sluggish trend prevalent in the market.

MUL has already ruled out any increase in prices. For the first time in recent years, MUL suffered a drop of 18 per cent in November last year over theprevious month. Maruti Udyog sold 19,738 vehicles in November as against 24,338 cars in October.

Sales of Ind Auto which makes the Fiat Uno was also up in November due to the performance of the car's diesel version.

Ind Auto sold 648 cars in November as against 612 cars sold in October. The passenger car sales recorded a negative growth of over 3 per cent during April-November as against the same period the previous year.