December is a slow month for car sales in India as it is a cooling off period after the festive bonanza. Car sales, as a whole, shrank for most carmakers, with Maruti Suzuki down by 18 per cent month on month and Hyundai by almost 10 per cent. The winners for the month, then, are those cars who have been hit the least if they haven’t performed better than before. So here is the list.
Highs
Honda celebrated 20 years of the City in December and it wouldn’t be wrong to say that it is one of the most valued brands in the automotive market. The Maruti Suzuki Ciaz has been trying to win over with its lower pricing while the Verna brings in bells and whistles to defeat the City. But Honda’s lone ranger has been standing tall for two decades now.
Tata’s new compact SUV seems to have hit the right spot with its growth curve, turning out to be quite stable in spite of the end of the year slump. It has outsold the Honda WR-V as well as the Ford EcoSport and is the second most sold compact SUV in the Indian car market as of now.
Renault’s money-maker, the Kwid, which was consistently doing around 9,000 units a month had suddenly hit a block, going down to as much as 5,000. But, with the numbers now jumping back to almost 7,000, it seems to be coming back on track. But after the innumerable sticker jobs, it is in need of a facelift and Renault should not let it die a slow death like its bigger cousin, the Duster.
Lows
The Renault Captur has failed to capture any dreams and along with its failure, it has also almost killed the phenomenon that the Duster once was. With its roundish looks and only a marginally better package than the Duster, the Captur couldn’t compete with the Creta and whatever was left of it was smashed by the Jeep Compass.
This is a surprise for us. Because, the all-new Ford Ecosport is genuinely the best in the compact SUV segment and it doesn’t deserve such lukewarm response, especially when the Brezza sells more than 10,000 units. With the sales down by almost two thirds, Ford’s hopes of revival seem to have been dashed.
Well, the Indian car of the year is out here in the losers list. Perhaps Hyundai delayed the new Verna a bit too much and allowed it to be out of the buying picture for too long or it´s possible that the C-segment hasn’t done well in December. Either way, we will have to wait and see if this dip is just a hiccup or a sign of something more ominous.
