Japanese car sales track up

Sales of new vehicles in Japan during February made for a considerable improvement compared to January’s numbers with 288,348 over-1,000cc vehicles delivered – up by 21.57 per cent on the previous month. “Every sector we monitor saw growth with the small, medium and large passenger car sector recording a month-on-month improvement of 20.19 per cent to post 249,565 sales with 41,930 extra cars finding new owners,” reports the IMVIA.“Light to heavy-truck sales posted a 31.22 per cent upswing to 37,792, while the bus sector went up by 34.64 per cent to 991 units.” Toyota was the overall winner by securing 12 of the top 20 models and 10 out of the top 16, with its Aqua selling 22,788 units for its best month since July last year. The Toyota Prius knocked Honda’s Fit down to third with 13,122 sales compared to 12,013. Nissan’s Note enjoyed another strong month to secure fourth with sales of 10,494. Fifth place was secured by Toyota’s Voxy, rising in the charts with 8,324 sales to narrowly outsell its stablemate, the Corolla, in sixth on 8,270. The Mazda Demio, now five months into the new model since its launch late last year, slipped to seventh in February with sales of 7,979 down from 8,864 in January. It was only top-10 model to record a drop. Eighth place was reclaimed by the newly redesigned Toyota Alphard and Vellfire twins on 7,745 units in contrast to January’s run-out when only 1,636 found new homes. Another Toyota came ninth with the Vitz on 6,930, while Nissan’s Serena sold 6,819 for 10^th – 267 more than the previous month. Honda’s Vezel, seen throughout much of 2014 in the top 10, fell away in February to 11^th on 6,500 units – only 49 ahead of the previous month. Nissan’s X-Trail had a good February with 5,464 sales, up from 3,922 the previous month, to remain in 14^th. In 15th, the new Toyota Esquire, its fourth month of deliveries, racked up 4,926 sales – down slightly from of 5,301 in January. Given it appears it has done little but soak up previous Noah or Voxy buyers, the three badges achieved overall sales of 18,833, which if aggregated would have placed them second place in February. Outside the top 20, there were winners and losers among models of interest in New Zealand. Mazda’s CX-5 saw a lift in volumes from 3,059 to 3,393 in February for 21st place. Suzuki’s Solio and Swift remained closely tied with sales of 3,256 and 3,255 for 22^nd and 23^rd. Subaru’s Levorg was unchanged in 25^th on 2,792 units. It improved slightly over the previous month. Honda’s Jade made its debut in 26^th position and sold 2,789 units in February. It’s an all-new model intended to bridge, and possibly replace, the Odyssey and Stream multi-seaters. It has a hybrid powertrain, is available in 2+2+2 configuration and was launched in China in 2013. In the alternative fuels market, Nissan’s Leaf enjoyed a strong February on 1,612 units for one of its best results over the past year. Mitsubishi Outlander’s fell back to 714 – both conventional petrol and PHEV variants – while Toyota’s new Mirai FCV hydrogen fuel-cell car found 24 owners.