Japan August 2012: Toyota Porte and Spade pop up

Toyota Porte and Spade

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

Now that government subsidies are running out, the explosive grow the Japanese new car market has experienced in the last few months is coming to an end, but there is no crash landing yet: the market is still up a reasonable 7% year-on-year in August to 232,273 units. The Toyota Prius enjoys its 15th consecutive month atop the Japanese models ranking thanks to 23,828 sales but is down 5% on August 2011. The Toyota Aqua follows at #2 and 19,076 units and passes the Honda Fit to now also rank #2 year-to-date at 173,593 sales vs. 169,747 for the Honda. Up to #4 and at a 2-year high last month thanks to the new model, the Toyota Corolla is already down to #5 and 6,861 units in August, passed by the Nissan Serena up 3 spots to #4.

Further down, we witness one impressive come back and a revelation: the new generation Toyota Porte is up 321% year-on-year to a fantastic 8th place with 4,883 sales. This is actually the first time in almost 8 years the Porte ranks within the Japanese Top 10! Originally launched in July 2004, it ranked #10 in August and September of that year, #7 in October and #9 in November to never reappear until this month… Its twin the Toyota Spade is a new nameplate and lands directly at #9 in August with 4,670 units. Other great performers this month include the Mazda CX-5 up 7 spots to a record #12 with 3,576 sales, the Suzuki Swift up 10 ranks to #13 and the Toyota 86 up 4 to #23.

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

One year ago: Japan August 2011: Toyota Prius leads in recovered market

Full August 2012 Top 30 Ranking Table below.