India's struggling car industry recorded a slight improvement in sales in the month of October, thanks to the festival season.

Maruti Suzuki, the country's biggest car maker, sold 60 more cars in October in the domestic market, pushing the monthly total to 96,062 units. The company's exports jumped 27 per cent year-on-year to 9,025 units.

Maruti's domestic market share jumped to its highest in three years to 40.7 per cent, thanks to its consistent performance. Sales of Maruti DZire jumped 20 per cent to 17,211 units in October. However, the company's compact car portfolio, which comprises Swift, Ritz and Estilo, suffered a sales drop of 1 per cent to 22,188 units.

Hyundai Motor India (HMI) sold 224 more cars in October compared with the 36,002 units in the corresponding month of previous year, mainly on the back of robust sales of its i10 Grand hatchback.

Rakesh Srivastava, senior vice president (marketing & sales) at Hyundai, said, "In this challenging market environment, sales have increased over last month by 17% on account of monsoons, festival buying and strong sales of
11,519 units of new model Grand."

However, Mahindra & Mahindra's October sales slipped 15 per cent year-on-year to 22,924 units; while Tata Motors's passenger vehicle sales stood at 14,133 units. M&M's sales were affected by the higher 3 per cent additional duty levied by the government on sports utility vehicles (SUVs).