A total of 73,770 units were sold in the review month over 56,222 units in October 2003, data released on Thursday by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers said. 

The sales of utility vehicles were up by 21.6 per cent at 15,983 units in October 2004.

Multi-purpose vehicle sales drove northwards by 15.8 per cent at 6,106 units.

The Indian car market has been on an overdrive, helping the country to join the coveted club by producing a record one million units last fiscal.

The significant performance of the industry is attributed to low interest rate loans, an array of new cars and increase in disposable income, analysts said.

The trend is likely to continue during the remaining months of 2004-05, they said.

Car market leader Maruti Udyog sold 33.7 per cent more vehicles at 37,544 units in October 2004 while its nearest rival Hyundai Motor India posted a 17 pert cent rise in sales at 13,239 units.

Tata Motors, India third-biggest carmaker, registered a jump of 40.5 per cent at 13,332 units.

Sales of Honda Siel Cars India soared 189.5 per cent at 2,994 units.

The Indian arm of second-biggest US carmaker Ford India clocked a rise of 14 per cent at 1,959 units while General Motors India registered a growth of 6.06 per cent at 1,329 units.

Sales of Toyota Kirloskar Motor also went up by 30.1 per cent at 1,022 units.

German-US carmaker DaimlerChrysler posted a rise of 26.43 per cent at 148 units.

Sales of Fiat India plummeted 47 per cent at 485 units.

C K Birla group firm Hindustan Motors' sales rose 7.62 per cent at 1,115 units.

In the utility vehicle category, sales of Mahindra and Mahindra grew by 5.16 per cent at 7,366 units while that of Toyota by 26 per cent at 3,049 units.

The utility vehicle sales of Tata Motors and General Motors registered a jump of eight and 99.6 per cent at 3,000 and 1,423 units respectively.

Bajaj Tempo and Maruti posted sales growth of 14.6 and 132.8 per cent at 601 and 291 units respectively.