Subaru Stella The Japanese Kei car market is down 45% this month with 76,849 registrations, due to repercussions from the March 11 quake. On May 8, Subaru announced it would stop producing Kei cars with best-seller Stella being halted as early as the end of the month. Stock-clearing rebates could…
Tata Nano * See the Top 40 best selling models by clicking on 'Read more' at the end of the post * Another very solid month for car sales in India with 6 models posting all-time high volumes. The Maruti Alto takes a breather with 25,462 sales, its lower figure…
Suzuki WagonR After two months under the leadership of the Daihatsu Move, the Suzuki Wagon R reclaims its title of best selling Kei car for the first time this year with 17,290 sales. It is however still #2 year-to-date at 42,764 units vs. 47,215 for the Move. The next three models…
Maruti Alto K10 * See the Top 40 best selling models by clicking on 'Read more' at the end of the post * This month the Maruti Alto, boosted by the facelifted K10 version, sets up a new monthly volume record in India at 38,065 units. This is nearly 5,000…
Daihatsu Move Custom * Visit this site and pick “Japan: earthquake and tsunami” to help the victims of the disaster * In February the Daihatsu Move is the best selling Kei car in Japan for the 2nd month in a row with 16,230 sales, keeping at bay the Suzuki Wagon R, the…
Suzuki MR Wagon A bit of shake up in the Kei cars ranking this month: the Daihatsu Move, #3 in 2010, climbs to first place in January with 14,207 sales, well ahead of the two stars of last year, the Suzuki Wagon R at 11,119 units and the Daihatsu Tanto…
The Maruti Alto sold 33,118 units in India in January, its best ever month. Very strong start of the year for Indian car sales: no less than 13 models either beat their volume record or are at their yearly best. At the very top, both the Maruti Alto at 33,118…
The Suzuki Wagon R finishes the year as the best selling Kei car in Japan for the 8th consecutive time with 195,108 registrations (-3%), thanks to a very strong month of December at 14,928 sales. The Daihatsu Tanto, leader of the market up to November, ends up #2 at 191,391…
After last month's poor results, Tata has been busy trying to resuscitate the Nano with new TV ads, easier financing and an extended warranty, and it worked so far: the Nano is #12 in December with 5,784 sales, its best month since July. Let's see if this recovery will last…
Daihatsu Tanto Custom In November, the Daihatsu Tanto regains the lead of the Japanese Kei cars ranking with 13,217 sales, ahead of the Suzuki Wagon R at 12,881 sales. Year-to-date, the Tanto is #1 too with 180,716 sales vs. 180,177 for the Wagon R. 2010 could very well be the…
In this blog I normally focus on best performances and don't dwell on the weak ones, but this is such shocking news that it had to be the main headline: the Tana Nano only found 509 new owners in the whole of India last month... This is very bad news…
* Click on title for more pictures! * Observation of the streets of Yangon through YouTube videos bring to light a particular situation in the Myanmar car market: very high import taxes make new cars an out of reach prospect for most consumers, and in this context, the 1992 Toyota…
Suzuki Wagon R Stingray Kei comes from keijidōsha, light automobile, and corresponds to vehicles under 3.4m length (For more on Kei cars see here). Traditionally, the best-selling Kei cars in Japan outsell the passenger cars, but with the arrival of the new Prius this is not valid anymore. The Suzuki Wagon R,…
The Indian car market is going from strength to strength and the Maruti Alto and Wagon R are posting record figures in October: 32,612 and 16,952 sales respectively! The Hyundai i10 (#3) is also very solid at 15,103 registrations, its second best 2010 figure, the Maruti Swift posts its best…
The Indian car market is growing strongly in 2010 but interestingly it is not getting more fragmented along the way. The best selling car, the Maruti Alto, is logically increasing its sales month after month (it reached 30,147 units in September - as many as the US sales of Toyota…