Passenger car market leader Maruti Udyog Ltd has sold over 27,000 vehicles between November 9 and November 15 during the Diwali sales, when it had special offerings on Zen and WagonR.

Though company officials were unable to provide the breakup between the two models, the marketing team had indicated that payment was received in full for all the bookings made between the dates. The last date for receiving payment was November 20.

Earlier this month Korean-car marker, Hyundai Motor India Ltd had reported equally impressive Diwali sales of over 25,000 units of its top selling Santro, on which an hefty discount of up to Rs 40,000 was offered between November 9 and November 11.

The prices of Santro Xing Xe was cut to Rs 300,001, Xing Xp to Rs 309,309, Xing Xg to Rs 329,329 and Xs to Rs 359,359. While HMIL had offered a direct cash discount, MUL gave away accessories and gift vouchers worth Rs 28,900 and Rs 26,500 on Zen and WagonR, respectively.

An MUL spokesperson said that offering direct discount during festival sales would make it difficult for the car major to revert to old prices once the festive season was over.

The festive offer has helped MUL set new records for its WagonR sales, the model that fetched 7700 units in October, setting an all time high volume. The company had sold 5700 units of Zen in the same month.

The company had deliberately kept its top-selling brands, M800 and Alto from the festive offer, as it would have choked the production line for the these models, which already have a long waiting period.

The two successful festival sales is expected to give a big push to the overall sales for the entire passenger car market in India.

Passenger car sales in October surged by 31 per cent for the seventh consecutive month this financial year. A total of 73,770 units were sold in October 2004 over 56,222 units in October 2003. Cumulative (April-October 2004) car sales rose 22.3 per cent at 459,629 units.