The growth witnessed in the mini passenger and super compact segments enabled the country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd to limit the decline in domestic sales during November compared to the corresponding month in the previous year.
Exports, however, suffered a blow, falling by about 46 per cent during the month.
In its communication to the stock exchanges, the company said that it sold 38,040 units in the passenger mini segment -where it has four models-M800, Alto, A-Star and WagonR- compared to 36,679 units in November 2012, a 3.7 per cent growth.
In the super compact segment, the company sold 15,286 units (13,502) of Dzire model, a 13.2 per cent gain.
However, in all other segments, the sales declined. Highlighting the intense competition in the compact segment where it once ruled unchallenged with Swift, Maruti saw sales of Swift, Estilo and Ritz fall sharply by 24 per cent to 18,122 units (23,849 units).
In the mid-size segment, it was able to sell 200 units of SX4 model, a 71.1 per cent decline compared to 692 units it sold in Nov 2012. In the executive segment, it sold just one vehicle of the Kizashi luxury car compared to 71 sold in November last year.
Maruti's total passenger car sales was 71,649 units (74,793 units), a 4.2 per cent decline.
In the Utility Vehicle segment, Suzuki with its three models-Gypsy, Grand Vitara and Ertiga- witness a 21.5 per cent drop in sales to 5,840 units (7,439 units).
In the van segment also, the sales declined 7.3 per cent to 8,021 units (8,650 units). Exports plunged by 46.2 per cent to 6,630 units from 12,318 units in the same month in 2012.
The total vehicle sales, including exports, was down 10.7 per cent to 92,140 units (1,03,200 units).
Shares of Maruti were trading at Rs 1,674.50, down by Rs 2.90, on the BSE.