Ahmedabad, Sept. 23 -- The historical No.1 and No.2 carmakers in India had their best single-day sales in years, as the rollout of GST 2.0 on the first day of Navratri brought buyers to showrooms by the droves.

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. clocked 80,000 inquiries and 30,000 deliveries of its cars on Monday, the highest in the last 35 years. Since new car prices were announced on 18 September, the country's largest carmaker has clocked 15,000 bookings every day-50% higher than usual.

"Compared to last year (festive season), the overall response has been exceptionally strong," Partho Banerjee, senior executive officer (marketing and sales) at the Alto K10 maker, said in a statement on Monday. "Demand for small cars has been especially strong...