Domestic Vehicle Sales Rise 8.4% in Japan

10/03/96

Reuters reported that the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said that year-on-year domestic Japanese vehicle sales rose 8.4 in September to 511,911 units. Japan's domestic sales for the six month April-September period totalled 2.50 million units, 2.4 percent higher than it was during the same period from the previous year.

The news agency published the following September sales breakdown (including the percent change from the prior year):

Total Car Sales           349,460   up  8.8 percent
      Cars over 2000 cc    83,992 down  9.0 percent
      Cars under 2000 cc  265,468   up 15.9 percent
Total Truck Sales         160,815   up  7.5 percent
      Heavy trucks         27,762   up 51.0 percent
      Light trucks        133,053   up  1.4 percent
Buses                       1,636   up 31.0 percent

Here's Reuters' breakdown for the top five Japanese auto manufacturers:

Toyota Motor Corp         181,688  up  4.7 percent
Nissan Motor Co Ltd       108,810  up  0.9 percent
Mitsubishi Motors Corp     50,546  up 16.4 percent
Honda Motor Co Ltd         45,741  up 26.3 percent
Mazda Motor Corp           30,320  up  0.4 percent

The April-September sales breakdown:

Total Car Sales          1,709,059    up  2.9 percent
      Cars over 2000 cc    403,038  down  8.0 percent
      Cars under 2000 cc 1,306,021    up  6.8 percent
Total Truck Sales          777,903    up  1.3 percent
      Heavy trucks          86,650  down  5.4 percent
      Light trucks         691,253    up  2.2 percent
Buses                        8,340  down  7.2 percent

April-September breakdown for the top five japanese manufacturers:

Toyota Motor Corp       944,057    up  0.1 percent
Nissan Motor Co Ltd     514,179  down  1.1 percent
Honda Motor Co Ltd      258,537    up 40.1 percent
Mitsubishi Motors Corp  218,327  down  7.8 percent
Mazda Motor Corp        133,288  down  8.4 percent

Year on year Japanese sales of imported vehicles rose 5.7 percent from a year earlier to 38,017 in September. April-September sales of imports rose 10.9% to 211,567.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel