Car sales kept a foot on the accelerator for the tenth straight month this

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year, as the lag effect of bookings in the festival season led to higher number of deliveries during November.

Maruti Suzuki recorded its highest ever dispatch nu-mbers in a month at 87,807 units in November, 67 per cent up from the sales registered in the same month last year. Similarly, Hyundai Motor witnessed 28 per cent growth in sales at 55,265 units during the period.

This growth comes on a low base last year when a sluggish economy and high auto loan rates led to slowdown in car sales. Companies calculate car sales on the basis of dispatches to dealers.

“Dispatches of car models to dealers were more than actual sales at the retail level during November. So it is possible that part of the sales came from October bookings, the cars for which were delivered during November,” Shashank Srivastava, chief general manager, marketing, Maruti Suzuki, said. Compared wi-th October, Maruti sold 3 per cent more cars. Maruti has big waiting periods goi-ng up to two mon-ths for Swift, Dzire & SX4 models.

“Festive season bookings of about 2-3,000 units on Maruti models have reflected in their November numbers,” Angel Broking senior research analyst Vaishali Jajoo said. She pegged Maruti to end the fiscal at 9.84 lakh units. The company had earlier said it is looking at selling eight lakh units in the domestic market and 1.3 lakh units in overseas markets in this financial year. Till November, the total sales of the company stand at 646,139 units.

According to Arvind Saxena, senior VP, marketing and sales, Hyundai Motor India, “The overall positive economic scenario has translated into more footfalls in showrooms and thus higher automobile sales.” While Maruti’s sales in abroad grew to 11,448 units, Hyundai's exports fell by 5 per cent to 27,103 units as scrappage incentives in most European markets have come to an end.

“Consumer confidence is more robust while credit squeeze is not the case anymore,” said Kapil Arora, partner, automotive, Ernst and Young.

Homegrown automakers Mahindra & Mahindra posted 96 per cent increase in sales at 22,587 units buoyed by more than-two fold increase in sales of its utility vehicles. Sales of Tata Motors, also increased 65 per cent at 54,108 units, propelled by launch of the Manza sedan that helped the company's Indigo range notch highest ever sales in a month at 5,963 units.

Hero Honda sold more than three lakh units for the eleventh consecutive mo-nth. “We will be crossing our original indication of four million units mark much earlier than the close of this fiscal,” said Anil Dua, senior vice president of sales and marketing, Hero Honda Motors. Sales of the firm grew by 32 per cent in November at 381,378 units.

Sales of TVS Motor increased by 23 per cent at 120,844 units, largely due to a 38 per cent increase in scooter sales while motorcycle sales fell marginally. The company hopes to add around 15- 20 per cent to its monthly sales, once new products Wego and Jive are made available in the market, it said in a statement.