new delhi the glitz and glamour may be aplenty at the delhi expo but companies do not expect the car market to turn around despite new launches and high footfalls at the mega auto carnival despite some stability in sales growth in november and december we do not expect the market to turn around even in first half of 2012 said arvind saxena sales and marketing director at hyundai india high interest and pinching petrol prices have combined with uncertain economic climate and gloomy stock markets to take the sheen off the car market which had grown a massive 30 last fiscal pulled down by the negatives indian car markets growth has slipped into the negative and is expected to be near flat at the end of this fiscal while the first quarter will be slow we expect some pickup only in the second quarter if there are changes to the negatives hiroshi nakagawa md of toyota kirloskar motors said while sales of toyota vehicles were healthy in 2011 nakagawa said the conversion rate of sales enquiries at dealerships is low auto industry body society of indian automobile manufacturers siam has already taken cue from the weak sentiments and twice downgraded its sales forecast for fiscal 201112 pawan goenka president of mahindra and mahindras automotive division said lowering of interest rates could be the first factor to revive car sales the rates are expected to soften towards the second half of 2012 and only then do we expect a reversal in the fortunes of the industry he said recent new model launches have also failed to take the industry out of the doldrums hyundai launched a entrylevel car eon nissan the sunny sedan honda the brio compact and toyota and gm launched diesel variants but there hasnt been much change in fortunes most companies now hope that the enthusiasm related with the expo will add some fizz to sales and help generate customer interest in the marketnot business as usual ceos fly coach the slowdown has triggered some voluntary costcutting measures among the auto crowd with ceos opting to fly coach with their teams rather than in pricier business class a chennaidelhi flight on wednesday was chocabloc with officials from companies as varied as daimler benz royal enfield hyundai and ford and had royal enfield ceo siddhartha lal sitting alongside his team in coach class many auto ceos now prefer to fly coach with the view that it simply doesnt look nice to splurge when business isnt good