Car sales slump, again!

The festive season has come and gone, and you'd think that carmakers would have managed to push quite a few cars out of their showrooms, but not this time around. The Indian car market is going through a period of reluctant spending and all major carmakers have seen a year-on-year drop in sales.

Tata Motors' domestic sales saw a 40 percent decline from 62,354 units last November to a mere 37,192 units this November -- its lowest in at least three years. Mahindra & Mahindra's domestic sales declined 18 percent (from 48,143 units last November to 39,255 units this November), and the company has stated that it does not see the situation changing for the better any time soon. Toyota Kirloskar's domestic sales witnessed a slump (though not as big a drop as Tata and M&M), from 10,352 units to 10,208 units. Even the country's largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki India, saw a 5.9 percent drop in sales, from 90,882 units last November to 85,510 units last month.

While most carmakers' sales have seen a similar trajectory, Japanese auto giant Honda has managed to rack up a 151 percent growth in number of cars sold (from 3,711 last November to 9,332), owing mainly to the popularity of the Amaze saloon (7,598 sold).

The automotive industry is looking to the government for a helping hand, but it seems unlikely that any such relief will come. Now, carmakers are pinning hopes on new models that will be launched in 2014 to provide fillip to sales figures. We can only wait and watch.