Japan March 2011: Quake induces 37% drop, Honda Fit #1

Honda Fit Hybrid

The effect on car sales of the quake and tsunami that devastated the country is now tangible: the Japanese car market dropped 37% in March at 279,389 units. This is the highest year-on-year fall for Nippon car sales since the -55% of May 1974 during the oil-supply crunch. While some dealerships are damaged in the northeast of the country, a lot of dealers in some central areas cannot run showrooms properly because of continued power blackouts.

In this context, auto industry analysts expect sales to fall a further 50% or more in April…

Now to the models ranking. Boosted by the new hybrid version, the Honda Fit takes the top spot for the 2nd time in the last 3 months with 22,284 units and only -3%. It even takes the lead in the 2011 year-to-date ranking at 54,033 registrations! The Toyota Prius is a distant #2 in March at 19,702 sales (-45%) and YTD at 52,523 units.

Nissan March

The next three models stay unchanged and fall slower than the market: the Toyota Vitz  at -13%, Nissan Serena at -10% and Honda Freed at -17%. Only two cars in the Top 30 actually see their sales improve: the Nissan March is up 5 spots at #7 (+5%) and the Nissan Elgrand is #30 at +47%.

The Lexus CT200h, launched last December, appears in the Top 30 for the first time at #26 with 2,460 sales.

Full Top 30 Ranking Table below.

Japan March 2011:

Pos	Model	Mar	/10	Feb	2011	Pos	2010
1	Honda Fit	22,284	-3%	2	54,033	1	2
2	Toyota Prius	19,702	-45%	1	52,523	2	1
3	Toyota Vitz	13,915	-13%	3	41,417	3	3
4	Nissan Serena	9,575	-10%	4	22,818	4	8
5	Honda Freed	8,608	-17%	5	20,914	5	5
6	Toyota Corolla	7,136	-51%	7	18,792	7	4
7	Nissan March	6,460	5%	12	14,638	11	17
8	Mazda Demio	6,375	-35%	9	15,974	9	11
9	Honda StepWGN	6,251	-41%	10	14,971	10	7
10	Toyota Passo	5,790	-54%	8	16,002	8	6
11	Toyota Ractis	5,533	-18%	6	19,120	6	19
12	Toyota Voxy	4,928	-46%	11	13,408	12	9
13	Nissan Note	4,667	-57%	16	12,082	13	10
14	Toyota Wish	4,011	-53%	17	10,414	17	13
15	Suzuki Swift	3,813	-29%	23	8,547	22	20
16	Toyota Noah	3,767	-43%	14	10,717	16	14
17	Suzuki Solio	3,765	new	15	11,699	14	–
18	Nissan Cube	3,551	-62%	21	9,127	20	15
19	Toyota Vellfire	3,499	-56%	13	11,485	15	12
20	Toyota Crown	3,476	-54%	19	9,691	18	22
21	Toyota Estima	3,337	-55%	18	9,471	19	16
22	Nissan X-Trail	2,778	-51%	24	7,628	23	24
23	Nissan Juke	2,767	new	20	8,691	21	32
24	Nissan Tiida	2,635	-68%	26	6,584	25	18
25	Toyota Mark X	2,503	-67%	28	6,393	26	21
26	Lexus CT200h	2,460	new	–	n/a	–	–
27	Mazda Premacy	2,352	-17%	27	6,337	27	–
28	Toyota Alphard	2,265	-48%	22	7,302	24	25
29	Subaru Legacy	2,116	-58%	29	5,535	28	29
30	Nissan Elgrand	2,036	47%	31	5,550	29	–

Source: online.wsj.com (many thanks to Ian for the link!), JADA