Japan July 2014: Subaru Levorg almost inside Top 10

Subaru Levorg

* See the Top 30 models and Top 14 local brands by clicking on the title! Thanks Stephen *

Sales of regular cars in Japan are up a shy 0.6% year-on-year in July to 285,886 registrations, bringing the year-to-date total to 2,056,488 units, up 7% on 2013. Given the rarity of the concept of used car in Japan, car purchase patterns are strongly skewed towards the first few months of sales of a new model, the bubble bursting quickly afterwards. Case in point: the Honda Fit, whose latest generation launched last September, is now falling down the ranking: from #1 in May to #2 in June and #3 in July, enabling the Toyota Aqua (-17%) and Prius (-27%) to reclaim the Top 2 spots they held over the Full Year 2013.

Toyota Voxy

The Toyota Voxy for its part is still on the up in 4th place (+193%), even breaking its all-time monthly volume record at 12,704 units thanks to the hybrid variant that’s been added to the range along with this year’s facelift. Add in its twin the Toyota Noah (+102%), virtually the same car with a different face and we come to a huge 19,488 sales, equivalent to #2 overall… Meanwhile the Honda Vezel lodges a 2nd consecutive month above 10,000 monthly sales at #6 with 11,567 units. For its third month in market, the Subaru Levorg jumps 12 spots on June to stop just short off the Top 10 at #11 with 5,352 sales, already and by far the brand’s best-seller at home. The Nissan X-Trail at #20 (+59%), Mazda Axela at #22 (+134%) and Honda Odyssey at #26 (+492%) are solid but starting to retreat compared to the past few months.

Previous month: Japan June 2014: Toyota Aqua back to #1, Honda Vezel up to #4

One year ago: Japan July 2013: Toyota Aqua reclaims top spot year-to-date

Full July 2014 Top 30 models and Top 14 brands Ranking Tables below.