Overall, passenger-car sales lost steam during the month compared to March.Maruti dispatches dropped 31.2 per cent while Daewoo recorded a 18.4 percent fall and Hyundai sales dropped 11.4 per cent compared to March 2000.Industry sources, however, say this trend is normal. Sales in March arealways higher as customers rush to buy cars to avail depreciation benefitsat the end of the financial year.

In the 1000-cc small car segment, Zen maintained its number one position byclocking sales of 6,335 units followed by Hyundai Santro at 5,603 units andDaewoo Matiz at 4,902 units. Maruti's latest offering in this segment, WagonR, notched up sales of 2364 units.

Maruti sold 13,596 units of its popular 800-cc and 6,081 units of Omni.In the mid-size segment, Daewoo sold a mere 165 units of its Cielo. MarutiBaleno sold 667 units while General Motors' Opel Astra sold 238 units andOpel Corsa 335 units.

Gross sales of Maruti stood at 30,377 units in April, while Hyundai's salesfor the month was 7,305 units. Hyundai's gross cumulative sales in theIndian market crossed the 1,00,000 mark on April 27. Daewoo's gross salesduring April stood at 5,067 units, which is five times higher than salesduring the same month of 1999.

According to a Hyundai statement, the company has achieved the fastestmarket penetration in the Indian automobile industry. The company iscurrently operating its plant on two-shift basis at over 100 per centcapacity utilisation.

Announcing the April figures, Daewoo said its Matiz model has recordedconsistent increase in sales over the past one year. "The popularity ofMatiz has been rising steadily and went to 24 per cent in January-Februarythis year and further to 38 per cent in March. This rise has been attributedto the recognition of Matiz as a high performance and quality car currentlyavailable in the domestic market."