Car dealers keep fingers crossed this festive season

INDORE: Even as car industry sees its peak time during the festival season, car dealers in the city are keeping their fingers crossed this year. A section of the dealers believe that the industry may not grow more than 2-3% in the state while there are others who are looking forward to a good growth.
Dealers who see poor sales this festive season cite a report by Society of Automobile Manufacturers Association (SIAM) which stated that the industry will remain flat during the current fiscal.
Maruti-Suzuki dealer Praveen Patel said, "The industry has registered a 6% negative growth in the state during the current fiscal so far. At our company, the de-growth has been as high as 15% during the period due to the obvious reasons. Still, I do hope that we will be able to register a growth of 2-5% as against an overall industry's growth of 1-2%, by the end of the fiscal."
The unrest at Maruti-Suzuki's Manesar plant is turning out to be advantageous for the rival companies.
Hyundai dealer Aditya Kasliwal said, "Past two months have been really excellent for my company in terms of sales. But, I do agree with the SIAM report that growth will remain flat in the industry in the state too as it was placed on the lower side when compared to the markets in states like Gujarat and Maharashtra. Hence, I do hope that the car industry will grow at 2-3% in the state during the remaining part of the fiscal."
Mahindra & Mahindra claims that it has registered a growth of 24% as against the industry average of 3% so far during the current fiscal and hence it is confident to achieve a growth of 30% during the ongoing festival season too.
M7M dealer Atul Sharma said, "We do think that MP was a growing market and hence being full of untapped potential. It is why I personally believe that the car industry will grow at the rate of 10-15% during the current fiscal in the state."
Companies including Skoda are also upbeat of registering a substantial growth in car sales during the current quarter. Gopal Relwani, manager, local Skoda showroom, said, "We were able to book 97 cars during the past quarter and we are expecting a growth of 150% under the segment on sequential basis during the current quarter too."