Japan July 2012: New gen pushes Toyota Corolla to 2-year high

Toyota Corolla Axio

* See the Top 30 best-selling models by clicking on the title! *

The Japanese new car market is up another massive 36% year-on-year to 328,543 registrations, once again due to the combined effects of government subsidies and a lower, tsunami-affected base in 2011. Subaru (+65%) and Toyota (+63%) are the main beneficiaries of this increase that bring the year-to-date total to 2,185,477 units, up 52% to 2011. However, the end of the government subsidy program coupled with the comparison with a recovering market in 2011 means the next few months will likely enter negative territory in Japan.

Toyota Corolla Axio

The two Toyota hybrids continue to dominate the models ranking in July with the Prius up 38% year-on-year to 33,398 sales and the Aqua at 26,274 units, both models delivering their best monthly volumes since last March. The Honda Fit rounds up the podium with 24,153 sales and is now only 2,981 units above the Aqua in the 2012 year-to-date ranking at #2.

Toyota Corolla Axio

With the 11th generation of the legendary model just getting kick started, the Toyota Corolla is up 4 spots on June and 114% year-on-year to #4 with 13,404 sales. This is the Corolla’s highest monthly volume in Japan since March 2010 when it sold 14,416 units and its 2nd highest in the last 4 years (it sold 14,546 in July 2008).

Other great performers this month include the Nissan March up 13 ranks on June to #10, the Toyota Estima up 5 to #12, the Subaru Impreza up 12 to #14, the Mazda CX-5 maintaining itself in the Japanese Top 20 for the 4th consecutive month at #18 thanks to 3,835 sales and the Toyota 86 in the Top 30 for the 4th time in a row at #27 and 2,908 units.

Previous month: Japan June 2012: Toyota Prius & Aqua lead, Mazda CX-5 up to #13

6 months 2012: Japan 6 months 2012: Toyota Aqua, Vellfire and Honda Freed excel

One year ago: Japan July 2011: Still not out of the woods

Full July 2012 Top 30 Ranking Table below.