Buyers of mid-luxury cars today have ample choice -- over 30 versions to choose from. And making the right choice can be pretty tough. So can selling these cars, as is evident from the market. There is the price, all right.

But more than that, manufacturers are using the technology plank, user-friendly schemes, sops and brand positioning to sell their brand in a relatively small market.

While the forthcoming Corsa (which is featured in the new Pepsi ad) is meant for ``people young at heart'', Ford Ikon -- The Josh Machine -- is meant for the ``Zinda Dil'' and Hyundai Accent has the ``The Power to Excite''. So all the new entrants are mainly targeting young, upwardly mobile professionals within the age group of 25 to 40 years, earning around Rs 40,000 a month. But what is the size of this market of young professionals? And are they in need of a new car? And more importantly, arethey willing to spend their incomes (and often even future incomes) on a car? That's something nobody knows.

Not long back, the mid-luxury segment was almost written off. General Motors, at a recent press conference, had admitted that when they decided to enter the Indian market in early Nineties, they had over-estimated the market and brought the wrong model to the country.

Last fiscal, the mid-segment shrunk by over 25 per cent. The exodus of small cars, coupled with a recovery in the economy, had triggered growth in passenger cars. But the scenario in the mid-segment has not changed very much. Even as the segment of Zen-like cars has seen a stupendous growth of 162 per cent in the first half of this fiscal, the passenger car segment saw a growth of 47 per cent in the same period, as compared to last year. The downward push, of course, came from the mid-size segment and the multi-utility segment.

Ironically, the mid segment is witnessing maximum launches. For manufacturers expect this segment to growby at least 15 per cent. Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) and Ford India Limited (FIL) launched their new mid-size cars Accent and Ikon respectively only a fortnight back. General Motors will launch Corsa in December; Fiat is launching Palio and a station wagon version of the Siena next year and Maruti is coming out with Baleno by this month-end.

All these new models and the existing ones are playing in a market that is less than 50,000 units in size. While only 43,624 cars were sold in the mid-size segment during the last fiscal, 25,739 units of mid-size cars have been sold in the first half of the current fiscal. These figures include all upper-end cars like Maruti Esteem, Daewoo Cielo, Fiat Siena, Opel Astra, Ford Escort and Mercedes Benz.

With a fierce pricing and marketing strategy launched by Ford for the Ikon, other players in the segment can't afford to be behind. Ford has priced Ikon Rs 35,000 below Hyundai Accent at Rs 4.99 lakh. Moreover, Ford is not taking the full payment for Ikon bookings. Thecompany will give the customer a definite date when the car would be delivered. The allotment status can be known from Ford India's website. What's better, in the event of cancellation, no charges would be levied and FIL plans to return the money across the counter! This is an industry first.

Despite all this, Ikon will find it difficult to beat Maruti Esteem, which has a market share of 35 per cent in the segment. Not only is Esteem priced much below the Ikon, it is also almost always available at a discount (in Delhi, it's Rs 40,000).

Ford's sales target for the Ikon, too, is very optimistic. The company hopes to sell around 20,000 units of Ikon in calendar 2000 which is at least 3,000 units more than even what Maruti Esteem sells in a year, at present.

Last year, MUL sold 16,728 units of the Esteem. This year, in the first half, MUL managed to sell 8,574 units of the Esteem. Honda Siel was the second largest player and sold 4,811 units in the April to September period, while Lancer sold 4,336 unitsin the same period.

With the economy picking up, the BJP-led coalition back in power, and the business confidence surveys showing more corporates optimistic about the business environment, clearly this segment is poised to grow. But the million dollar question is by how much?

According to B V R Subbu, Director, Marketing, HMIL, this segment should grow at the rate of 15 per cent to reach a size of 60,000 units by fiscal 2001. Hyundai hopes to sell around 1,000 units of the Accent every month. General Motors has set a target of around 8,000 units for the Corsa. So if we add up all the targets 20,000 of Ford's, another 20,000 for Maruti Esteem (add to that the target for Baleno, which is still not known), another 10,000 for Hyundai, 8,000 for Corsa...(that's 60,000 already!), perhaps another 8,000 for Siena (Palio's coming in soon), and then there is Lancer, Astra, Honda, Escort...Surely, it appears that the segment is poised for yet another setback.