Maruti's bread-and-butter model Maruti 800 witnessed a decline in sales for the second month in a row even as India's largest carmaker saw a 10 per cent rise in sales in June this year at 39,574 units.

Following the 40.7 per cent drop last month, Maruti 800 sales dropped 18 per cent to 10,761 units against 13,126 in June last year.

The Maruti Saga

The company's overall sales, including exports, stood at 39,574 units in June, an increase of 10 per cent over 36,038 in June 2003.

The drop in sales of the M 800 model offset the gains the company made following higher sales of Alto, Wagon R and Zen models which saw an 82 per cent jump at 18,768 units against 10,337 units sold in the corresponding month last year.

The company also saw a big drop in exports, which fell 52 per cent to 3,159 units against 6,672 units sold abroad in June last year.

The company attributed the drop in exports to the transporters' strike last year. "Most of the export shipments in May 2003 could be delivered only in June 2003 because of the transporters strike and thus the base became higher.

"We feel that despite the drop, the export numbers in June this year are near the average monthly figures and there is no cause for concern," a company spokesman said.

Maruti's cumulative domestic sales in the first quarter of this fiscal (April-June '04) grew 22 per cent to 1,11,384 units against 91,521 units in the same period last year.

However, exports in the same period were down marginally by two per cent at 12,240 units, against 12,496 units in April-June 2003.

Notably, Maruti 800 sales in the first quarter of this fiscal are down 22 per cent to 31,874 units against 40,774 units in the same period last year. However, the sales of the Alto, Wagon R and Zen saw a 80 per cent rise in the same period on sales of 59,201 units (32,885).