Japan July 2011: Still not out of the woods

Nissan Lafesta Highway Star

* See the Top 30 best-selling models by clicking on ‘Read more’ at end of post! *

After dropping an ‘encouraging’ 23% in June, the Japanese car market is down 28% in July at 241,472 registrations, with Toyota at -37% and Honda at -33%… The Toyota Prius, albeit down 30% year-on-year, holds onto its #1 spot with 24,220 sales, it is however still #2 in 2011 at 107,539 units below the Honda Fit at 109,035 over 7 months and 20,753 sales in July, up 14%.

Mazda Demio

Below the Toyota Vitz, #3 again at -15%, the Mazda Demio is up 5 spots on June in 4th place with 10,464 sales, up 33% and one of the best monthly volumes ever for the nameplate in Japan. The Toyota Ractis and Honda Freed are both up vs. June at #6 and #8 respectively.

The Nissan Lafesta is up a massive 140% year-on-year thanks to the arrival of the Highway Star version (pictured above) at #18 with 2,759 sales. The Lexus CT200h clocks up 2,648 sales, its best-ever monthly volume, and is up to #21, a position it only held once before, in April.

Previous month: see the June 2011 Japan post here.

Full Top 30 Ranking Table below.