Japan November 2015: Toyota Voxy up, Volkswagen down 32%

Toyota Voxy. Picture response.jp 

* Click on title to see the Top 50 All-brands, Top 30 cars and Top 35 kei cars *

This report was created in collaboration with Stephen Bloom.

November brought more bad news for the Japanese market that has been plagued by decreased kei car sales after a tax increase earlier in the year. Sales of new vehicles are down 7% year-on-year to 388.817 registrations, and down 9% to 4.677.052 units for the year. Regular cars rose slightly (0.3%) in November to 239.815 units, but again the kei segment is the hardest hit with sales down 16% to 149.002 units. Imports are also down (-5%) for a third consecutive month to 25.156 units. Most domestic manufacturers post only modest year-on-year gains: Honda (+3%), Subaru (+3%), and Toyota (+1%) or significant declines: Suzuki (-24%), Mitsubishi (-21%), Mazda (-14%), and Daihatsu (10%).

Smart Fortwo. Picture response.jp

Only Lexus (+30%) stands out, along with a string of other foreign manufacturers including Volvo (+12%), Mini (+22%), Ford (+43%), Fiat (+56%) and Jaguar (+139%). Volkswagen (-32%) is still seeing its reputation stained by its emission scandal and is pulling Audi (-25%) along. Following the launch of the new generation Fortwo and just as the Forfour is about to hit the country’s dealership, Smart shoots up 6-fold year-on-year (+517%) to land in 25th position vs. #41 last month.

Toyota Sienta. Picture response.jp

In the regular models ranking, the Toyota Aqua evolves like the market (-8%) to again lead by a wide margin at 15.536 sales. The new Toyota Sienta is #2 for a fourth consecutive month, up an incredible 760% on the previous generation a year ago. The #3 spot this month goes to the Toyota Voxy (+34%) which recived a special edition to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Toyota’s Netz dealer network. Netz is one of four networks at home and is targeted to a younger audience with more stylized versions of its core models similar to Scion in the US. The venerable Toyota Prius drops further to #8 this month ahead of the December launch of its fourth generation.

Daihatsu Cast. Picture response.jp

Over in the kei car ranking the Honda N-BOX is #1 again with 14.035 units and looking to hold that title for the entire year. The Daihatsu Tanto and Nissan Dayz maintain the #2 and #3 spots respectively while after keeping close pace to its rival the Daihatsu Cast, very strong at #4 and 9.172 sales, the Suzuki Hustler drops 5 places to #10.

Previous month: Japan October 2015: Toyota Sienta and Daihatsu Cast impress

One year ago: Japan November 2014: Daihatsu Wake and Toyota Esquire land

Full November 2015 Top 50 All-brands, Top 30 cars and Top 35 kei cars below.