Japan September 2016: Toyota & Honda stay positive, market down 0.5%

The new Estima (+97%) helps Toyota gain 11% at home in September. 

* NOW UPDATED with the Top 35 All-kei cars *

* See the Top 52 All-brands, Top 30 cars and Top 20 foreigners by clicking on the title *

Note the August 2016 post has now been updated with kei cars data

After getting back into positive last month, the Japanese new car market is down 0.5% in September to 476.771 registrations, meaning the year-to-date tally is now down 3.4% to 3.776.386 units. Toyota continues to frankly outperform its home market with a stunning 11% rise in September to 144.152 sales and 30.2% share, followed by Honda up 3% to 70.129 and 14.7%. Suzuki (-1%), Daihatsu (-7%), Nissan (-16%), Mazda (-11%) and Subaru (-3%) on the other hand all decline. Isuzu (+8%) and Mercedes (+3%) are the only other two manufacturers posting positive results inside the Top 10, with Mitsubishi (-41%) freefalling on the wake of its fuel economy scandal. Further down, BMW (+14%) remains above Volkswagen (-16%) for the #2 foreign spot, while Jeep (+22%), Porsche (+26%), Mini (+36%), Land Rover (+40%), Peugeot (+42%), DS (+49%), Renault (+69%), Abarth (+100%), Jaguar (+101%) and Smart (+9600%!) all post spectacular gains.

Abarth doubles its sales year-on-year in September thanks to the 124 Spider launch. 

The Toyota Prius (+112%) remains the best-selling nameplate in the country by far with 20.043 sales, ahead of the Toyota Aqua (-15%) with the Sienta making the podium 100% Toyota among regular cars. The Honda Fit (+20%), Toyota Voxy (+17%), Honda Vezel (+32%) and Toyota Passo (+113%) all lodge double-digit gains at least but the Nissan Serena only gets a 6% push from the new generation. Further down, notice the Mazda Axela (+52%), Toyota Crown (+41%), Estima (+97%), Honda Odyssey (+146%) and Subaru Forester (+78%). The Honda N-BOX (+17%) leads the kei cars ranking once again with over 20.000 sales, distancing the Daihatsu Tanto (-13%), Move (+35%) and Nissan Dayz (-21%).

The Jeep Wrangler ranks among the 20 best-selling foreign models for the first time. 

The foreign models ranking for Q3 2016 – only quarterly data is released – reserves more surprises than usual: the Mini (all versions) reclaims the top spot thanks to sales up 25% year-on-year to 5.980, oovertaking the VW Golf down 15% to 5.734 but still in the year-to-date lead so far at 17.906 (-14%) vs. 17.790 (+14%) for the Mini. The Mercedes C-Class’ 20% drop in third place is more than compensated by a 98% surge to 4th position by the E-Class with 3.240 sales – it ranked #17 in Q2. The BMW 2 Series and Mercedes A-Class both gain 16%, the Audi A4 (#13) and BMW X1 (#14) remain solid thanks to new generations and the Jeep Wrangler debuts in the Top 20 at #17, the very first Jeep to rank among the 20 best-selling foreigners in Japan.

Previous month: Japan August 2016: Toyota (+16%) outpaces market back in positive

One year ago: Japan September 2015: Toyota Sienta hits record volume again

Full September 2016 Top 52 All-brands, Top 30 cars, Top 35 kei and Top 20 foreigners below.