KARACHI: Car sales in the first four months of current fiscal year went up by 3.6 per cent clocking in at 72,563 units, according to latest data released by the Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA).

In the 1,300cc and above category, Toyota Corolla continued its domination by selling 18,814 units during July - Oct; an uptick of 10pc from total units sold – 16,981 units – during the same period last year.

On the other hand, during the period under review, Honda sold 16,643 units of City and Civic variants; up by 20pc from the same period last year. Furthermore, Suzuki Swift sales also increased by 30pc to 1,837 units.

In the 1,000cc category, Suzuki Cultus and Wagon R sales climbed to 7,230 and 11,228 units from 6,639 and 9,267 units. This is the first time since the launch of Wagon-R that the car has shown year-on-year decline in units sold.

Among the losers, iconic Suzuki Mehran and Bolan sales dropped to 11,399 and 5,412 units followed by plunge in sales of Toyota Fortuner, Honda BR-V and Suzuki Ravi to 864, 1,816 and 5,808 respectively.

Toyota Hilux sales during the period inched up to 2,150 units; an increase of 2.5pc from the same period last year.

According to Syed Danial Adil at Top Line Securities, on a YoY basis, auto sales grew by 6pc in October, continuing the growth momentum from the preceding month.

In addition to that, month-on-month sales were also up 28pc mainly due to higher number of working days in the month of Oct compared to September. Moreover, the anticipated price hike subsequent to rupee depreciation may also have encouraged customers to opt of early purchases, he believed.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2018