Japan December 2012: Subaru Impreza & Forester break records

Subaru Impreza XV

* See the Top 30 best-selling models and Top 14 All-brands by clicking on the title! *

* See the Full Year 2012 post here *

New ‘regular’ car sales in Japan resist quite well in December at just -3% year-on-year to 214,429 registrations, bringing the Final Year 2012 total to 3,390,274 units, up 26% on 2011. The Toyota Aqua asserts its newly acquired domination of the Japanese models ranking, selling 20,397 units for a third consecutive month in pole position while the Toyota Prius family is down 28% on December 2011 to 16,573 units at #2. The Nissan Note ranks #3 and on the podium ranks for the 4th time in a row and the 5th time ever for the nameplate with February 2005.

Subaru Forester

Boosted by very satisfying sales of the XV variant, the Subaru Impreza is up 2 ranks on November to hit #5, its highest ever ranking in the country, beating the #6 spot it reached last September. This is the highest ranking lodged by any Subaru model in over 13 years, since the Legacy hit #4 in July 1999… The Legacy still holds Subaru’s volume and ranking records at 14,509 units in March 1997 and #3 in July 1996 and July 1998. Subaru breaks another nameplate record this month with the Forester: up 4 spots on an already best-ever #15 last month, it reaches #11 with 3,109 sales, up 159% year-on-year.

Mazda Atenza (aka Mazda6)

Notice also the all-new (for Japan) Nissan Sylphy landing at #19 with 2,372 units for its first full month of sales in the country and the Mazda Atenza breaking into the Top 30 for the first time in years thanks to the new generation at #28 and 1,584 sales. In the brands ranking, after hitting a huge 50% market share last month, Toyota comes back to earth to a still impressive 42.8% in December, followed by Nissan at 14.5% and Honda at 8.8%. Subaru is up 65% year-on-year to 11,293 units and 5.3% vs. 3.2% in the Full Year.

Full Year post: Japan Full Year 2012: All-new Toyota Aqua tickles Prius

Previous month: Japan November 2012: Toyota Aqua #1, Subaru Forester at best-ever #11

One year ago: Japan Full Year 2011: Toyota Prius leads in difficult year

Full December 2012 Top 30 models and Top 13 All-brands Ranking Tables below.