Japan October 2013: Honda Fit #1 for the first time in 29 months

Honda Fit

* See the Top 30 best-selling models and Top 13 local brands by clicking on the title! Thanks Stephen *

Fantastic month for new car sales in Japan: up 17% year-on-year to 264,567 registrations which reduces the year-to-date fall to 7% at 2,731,659 units. Big event atop the models ranking: thanks to the third generation of the model enjoying its first full month of sales in Japan, the Honda Fit manages to grab the pole position in October thanks to 23,281 sales, up a huge 150% year-on-year. The last time the Fit topped the Japanese sales charts was in May 2011, right in the aftermath of the terrible tsunami that hit the country in March of that year. The Fit topped the annual Japanese sales charts twice before: in 2002 (interrupting 22 consecutive years of Toyota Corolla reign!) and 2008. 2014 could be next! This performance pushes Honda to #2 brand above Nissan at 14.4% share vs. 10.1% year-to-date.

The Hybrid variant pushes Toyota Corolla sales up 111% this month.

The Toyota Prius remains #2 at 20,886 units, up a cool 15% on October 2012 and now above the Toyota Aqua, down 2 ranks on September and 17% year-on-year to #3 with 19,984 sales. The Aqua however holds onto its year-to-date top spot thanks to 228,662 units vs. 216,253 for the Prius. There is a third Toyota inside the Top 4 this month: the Corolla is up a fantastic 111% year-on-year thank to the new Hybrid version at #4 with 12,632 sales, its strongest monthly volume since July 2012…

Toyota SAI

Lots of impressive year-on-year gains this month in the Japanese Top 30: the Toyota Crown is up 174% to #8, Honda Stepwgn up 53% to #9, Toyota Vellfire up 44% to #11, Toyota Alphard up 48% to #17 and the Nissan X-Trail up 37% to #25. The Toyota SAI continues to climb up the ladder thank to its facelift: up a further 5 spots on September and 445% year-on-year to #23 with 2,437 sales, while the Subaru Forester is down 6 ranks on last month to #24 but up a gargantuan 7827% on October 2012 to 2,378 units.

Honda Accord

Finally, we welcome the Honda Accord inside the Top 30 for the first time since I have been following Japanese car sales monthly (that’s 10 years!) at #27 with 2,152 sales, up 1388% on October 2012 thanks to the new model and its PHEV version. As opposed to the United States where it regularly sells over 30,000 monthly units (38,559 last August!), the Honda Accord has never really been successful at home in Japan so it will be interesting to see whether this generation can buck the trend and climb higher in the monthly sales charts…

Previous month: Japan September 2013: New gen pushes Honda Fit back up to #3

One year ago: Japan October 2012: Toyota Aqua takes the lead, Toyota 86 up to #14

Full October 2013 Top 30 models and Top 13 local brands Ranking Tables below.