KARACHI, Nov 14: Consumers maintained their buying spree for locally produced cars thus pushing up its overall sales by 23.4 per cent to 51,755 units in July-Oct, 2011 as compared to 41,941 units as compared o same period last year.

Sale of heavy vehicles (buses and trucks) remained subdued, while overall tractor sales plunged despite restart of production of Fiat tractors from October.

Sales of two and three wheelers showed positive trend followed by improvement in sale of light commercial vehicles (LCVs).

Higher imports of used cars, price increase by assemblers on account of losing value of rupee against the yen, and rising petroleum and gas prices did not make adverse impact on sale of locally produced cars.

Despite these factors the demand of locally produced cars has been brisk due to buying from record inflows of foreign home remittances and higher agricultural income.

A total of 23,564 cars of (1,300cc and above) were sold in July-Oct as compared to 20,526 in the same months of last year.

The sale of Honda Civic, Honda City, Suzuki Liana, Suzuki Swift and Toyota Corolla rose to 2,246, 3,647, 168, 2,328 and 15,175 units as compared to 2,131, 3,041, 123, 969 and 14,262 units, respectively.

Despite zero production and sale figures of Hyundai Santro cars, the two Suzuki brands, Cultus and Alto, remained a hot selling item in 1,000cc segment. Cultus and Alto sales rose to 4,997 and 4,737 units in July-Oct as compared to 3,823 and 3,919 units in the corresponding period of last year.

Figures released by Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (Pama) revealed sharp rise in Suzuki Mehran sales to 11,414 units from 7,604 units, followed by jump in Bolan sales to 5,511 from 4,176.

Reports of discontinuation in production of Cuore from earlier next year had made buyers cautious thus lowering its sales to 1,532 units from 1,893 units.

Based on above figures, the overall sales 800cc and below 1,000cc cars swelled to 18,457 units as compared to 13,673 units.

In October a total of 746 units of Fiat tractors were produced. However, its sales during July-Oct plunged sharply to 2,199 units from 7,005 in the same period of last year, while sale of Massey Ferguson tractors also fell to 6,070 from 12,964 units.

In bus segment, the maker of Nissan bus did not produce any units during the period under review and also during same period last year, while the maker of Master buses rolled out only two units in July-Oct as compared to zero production in the same period of 2010.

Hino and Isuzu buses sales fell to 114 and 13 units from 145 and 31 units, respectively.

In trucks, except for Master units, whose sales rose to 133 from 100 units, all other assemblers suffered fall.

The sale of Hino, Nissan and Isuzu buses dropped to 326, 44 and 59 units from 587, 154 and 130 units.

In LCVs segment, Suzuki Ravi sales maintained its positive trend, rising to 5,722 from 4,665 units while Toyota Hilux sales also reached 1,099 units from 467 units. The sale and production of Hyundai Shehzore remained nil during July-Oct as compared to 70 units in the same period of last year, while Master sales fell to eight units from 15 units. Sigma Defender sales also declined to 217 from 233 units.

In two and three wheelers, total sales surged to 289,650 units from 255,705 units in which the share of Honda bikes stood at 202,674 units as compared to 172,709 units.

Furqan Punjani of Top Line Securities said that Pak Suzuki Motor Company Limited (PSMCL) benefited from the orders of taxi schemes launched by the Punjab government.