Japan February 2014: Toyota Aqua #1, Voxy & Noah shoot up

Toyota Noah

* See the Top 30 models & Top 13 local brands by clicking on the title! Thanks Stephen *

The Japanese new car market (ex-Kei cars) is up a splendid 15% year-on-year in February to 336,176 registrations, bringing the year-to-date total to 628,622 units, up 20% on 2013. Honda recalling some hybrid models due to a faulty transmission software which led to the manufacturer temporarily halting deliveries had a big impact on the models sales charts this month: the Honda Fit drops from #1 to #3 even though it is still up 49% year-on-year, giving way to the Toyota Aqua back to #1 with 23,973 sales ahead of the Toyota Prius at 23,501. The Nissan Note reclaims the #4 spots off the Toyota Corolla still up 62% on February 2013 thanks to the new hybrid variants.

Nissan X-Trail

Lots of movement in the entire ranking this month: the twins Toyota Voxy and Noah shoot up thanks to their facelift: up 106% to #8 and 8,147 sales for the Voxy, up 94% to #10 and 6,202 units for the Noah. The Nissan X-Trail delivers a 2nd consecutive month inside the Top 10 at #9 thanks to 7,554 sales whereas it had never belonged among the 10 most popular cars in the country before last month in its 14 year-career… After spending 3 months in a row at a record 16th spot, the Mazda Axela smashes this record by gaining a further 5 ranks to land at #11 with 5,558 sales, up 389% year-on-year.

Mazda Axela

Further down, the Toyota Harrier is down one spot on its record #14 ranking from last month to #15 at 5,243 units, up a gigantic 10386% year-on-year, while the Honda Odyssey is down 6 ranks on January but up 1058% year-on-year to #17 and 5,176 sales, the Mazda CX-5 is up a beautiful 115% on February 2013 at #21 and the Toyota SAI is up 577% at #30. Finally, the Honda Vezel falls 13 ranks to #22, victim of the brand’s delivery halt, but should rebound back up in the next couple of months.

Previous month: Japan January 2014: Nissan X-Trail, Honda Vezel & Toyota Harrier beat records

One year ago: Japan February 2013: Mazda Atenza and Mitsubishi Outlander up

Full February 2014 Top 30 models and Top 13 All-local brands Ranking Tables below.