market driven by encouraging expectations among consumers on the political front said manish sharma md panasonic india and south asia cars driving faster the automobile industry which is a barometer of the economic health of the nation too is seeing a pickup the interim budget had announced excise sops for the automobile industry as well however the sluggish economy had a bad effect on the sector car sales were down 5 for two years in a row mayank pareek coo of market leader maruti suzuki told toi that he has witnessed substantial increase in footfall since may 10 eberhard kern md and ceo mercedesbenz india agrees the current election results have improved sentiments among our dealers and customers with the current improved sentiments we are well on track for our double digit growth this year kern added