The biggest surprise of 2007

So with the favorite question amongst car buyers being "What is the Mileage[Fuel Efficiency] of this car?" you would have have assumed that diesel would be the order of the day as far as buyers choice was concerned but here's the surprising bit,

According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers’ (SIAM), the 6,94,566 petrol vehicles sold in India are more than 80.13% of the total passenger cars sold till December 2007, while 1,72, 235 diesel vehicles accounted 19% of the total 8,66,801 passenger vehicles sold in India.

“Contrary to people’s belief, sales of diesel vehicles are actually going down. Petrol cars are selling more across all segments - small cars, mid-sized cars and luxury vehicles. Their numbers are rising even in the utility vehicle segment where the diesel variants rule. Vehicles like Honda CR-V and Maruti Grand Vitara are available only in petrol,” a SIAM official said.

But wait till you jump to conclusions this trend is being attributed more to the lack of availability of diesel cars than an actual aversion to Diesel vehicles.I am pretty sure as the availability of these vehicles increases in the Indian markets we will see a reversal in trends.So should we hold a protest against automobile manufacturers for keeping us away from diesel vehicles and indirectly increasing the fuel bills of the country after all protests seem to be the order of the day.

Source:
EconomicTimes.com