Japan In February 2010: New Car Sales Up 35.1 Percent. Toyota Up 47.9 Percent
Japanese sales of new cars and trucks continue their solid comeback in February. Japan has filed away carmageddon. Japan is utterly unimpressed by the Toyota troubles. Japan has not been spared Toyota recalls. The hearings and public apologies have received wide coverage in Japan. And what is the Japanese reaction? A plus 47.9 percent vote of confidence. With the currently very tight Japanese wallets. There is a long waiting list for the Prius, Toyota’s best selling car. [Editor’s note: Japan is currently in the throes of its own Cash-for-Clunker prgram]
Also interesting: Sales of minivehicles, formerly feted as the future, are barely holding their own, whereas sales of “real” cars continue their double digit climb. Let’s look at the numbers:
Sales of new cars and trucks rose 35.1 percent year on year to 294,887 units in February, marking the seventh straight month of increase, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association report via The Nikkei [sub]. Passenger car sales went up 39.2 percent, sales of trucks increased 2.4 percent to 7,538 units.
Toyota (ex Daihatsu, Hino and Lexus): 146,145 units sold, up 47.9 percent.
Minivehicles, that Japanese phenomenon of pintsized (under 660cc) “cars” are languishing. Sales of minivehicles rose a mere 0.6 percent year on year to 163,341 units in February. That was the second month of pintsized increases. Last month, the kawaii kei kars had recorded their first rise in 15 months with 0.7 percent growth. Numbers are reported by the Japan Mini Vehicles Association via The Nikkei [sub].
Daihatsu: 58,486 units sold, up 2.8 percent.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Wow...Toyota's numbers better than pretty much everybody else’s! I expect Government Motors/UAW shills to immediately start complaining about Bertel's reporting and about incentives (conveniently forgetting they apply to everybody). The big problem these crooks have- other than having their hand deep in the taxpayers pocket- is that the Toyota smear job only works here in the US.
I wonder what their Chinese sales are like last month?