Japan In September 2011: Auto Sales Up. Sukoshi

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

For the first time in 13, yes 13 months, Japanese new car sales registered a small uptick. Small (sukoshi) it is, 1.7 percent, compared to September 2010. And that only, because September 2010 was bloodbath.

When we sang our Sayonara to growth a year ago, we didn’t expect it would be THAT bad: For the 9 months of this year, Japanese car sales are down by a whopping 25.9 percent. Following data provided by the Japan Automotive Dealer Association. The numbers do not include minivehicles. (Careful when applying the data to minivehicle-heavy makers such as Daihatsu or Suzuki…)

Japan, Sales regular vehicles, September 2011

ManufacturerSept ’11Sept ’10ChangeFYTD’11FYTD’10ChangeDaihatsu333855-61.1%2,1375,075-57.9%Hino4,5142,97951.5%24,93022,44911.1%Honda43,42242,7231.6%278,455394,953-29.5%Isuzu4,5835,309-13.7%30,68034,724-11.6%Lexus5,7703,60859.9%32,02027,74615.4%Mazda17,40916,0608.4%112,900153,708-26.5%Mitsubishi6,4797,491-13.5%42,89259,359-27.7%Mitsubishi Fuso3,1092,75912.7%18,35818,727-2.0%Nissan53,42757,879-7.7%338,710417,521-18.9%Subaru9,07410,374-12.5%56,33366,424-15.2%Suzuki7,3695,43735.5%58,90246,08527.8%Toyota131,072130,1350.7%813,5921,255,509-35.2%UD Trucks1,02462763.3%5,7836,490-10.9%Other26,20522,42716.8%151,259144,7764.5%Total313,790308,6631.7%1,966,9512,653,546-25.9%

(FYTD: Fiscal Year To Date: Cumulative sales since April)

The Japan Mini Vehicles Association does not have good news: September sales were down 9.1 percent in September, and down 19.9 percent for January – September 2011.

Japan, Sales mini vehicles, September 2011

ManufacturerSept ’11Sept ’10ChangeYTD’11YTD’10ChangeSuzuki46,08548,684-5.3%353,731445,238-20.6%Daihatsu52,09260,579-14.0%393,318483,730-18.7%Mitsubishi9,84311,012-10.6%72,96686,592-15.7%Subaru8,4509,799-13.8%60,47579,899-24.3%Honda12,09114,273-15.3%96,030131,226-26.8%Mazda4,9504,5359.2%34,78442,051-17.3%Nissan14,67414,4041.9%105,837117,998-10.3%Toyota2160216Other16-83.3%2977-62.3%Total148,402163,292-9.1%1,117,3861,386,811-19.4%

(YTD: Year To Date: Cumulative sales since January)

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

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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  • Alluster Alluster on Oct 03, 2011

    Wow. Impressive growth by Lexus. I wonder why Nissan is down though. Is it because Nissan had stellar sales following the tsunami when everyone else was down or could it be, the japanese are punishing them for threatening to move production out and or source more parts from outside japan? oh total sales including mini vehicles are still down though, by 2.1% ================================================= TOTAL 313,790 (+ 1.7) Cars 280,379 (+ 0.8) Trucks 32,565 (+10.1) Toyota Motor 136,842 (+ 2.3) - Toyota brand 131,072 (+ 0.7) - Lexus* 5,770 (+59.9) Nissan Motor 53,427 (- 7.7) Honda Motor 43,422 (+ 1.6) Mazda Motor 17,409 (+ 8.4) Mitsubishi Motors 6,479 (-13.5) Suzuki Motor 7,369 (+35.5) Fuji Heavy 9,074 (-12.5) Imports 33,980 (+13.3) *Lexus is the luxury brand of Toyota Motor. Sales in Japan

  • Pete Zaitcev Pete Zaitcev on Oct 03, 2011

    Good going, Bertel. Midori no Hibi was surprisingly delightful, given the premise. Oh, wait, where were we... Lexus, right. Well, nobody cares about Lexus :-)

  • Lorenzo Are they calling it a K4? That's a mountain in the Himalayas! Stick with names!
  • MaintenanceCosts It's going to have to go downmarket a bit not to step on the Land Cruiser's toes.
  • Lorenzo Since EVs don't come in for oil changes, their owners don't have their tires rotated regularly, something the dealers would have done. That's the biggest reason they need to buy a new set of tires sooner, not that EVs wear out tires appreciably faster.
  • THX1136 Always liked the Mustang though I've never owned one. I remember my 13 yo self grabbing some Ford literature that Oct which included the brochure for the Mustang. Using my youthful imagination I traced the 'centerfold' photo of the car AND extending the roof line back to turn it into a small wagon version. At the time I thought it would be a cool variant to offer. What was I thinking?!
  • GregLocock That's a bodge, not a solution. Your diff now has bits of broken off metal floating around in it.
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