Life & Style | Motoring
Honda and Toyota lead decline in vehicle sales
Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., Japan's two biggest carmakers, led a drop in the country's auto sales last month as a recession cut wages and crippled consumer demand.
- Bloomberg
- Published: 10:45 January 5, 2009
Tokyo: Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., Japan's two biggest carmakers, led a drop in the country's auto sales last month as a recession cut wages and crippled consumer demand.
Sales of vehicles fell 22 per cent to 183,549 vehicles last month, excluding minicars, the Tokyo-based Japan Automobile Dealers Association said in a statement on Monday.
For the year, sales plunged 6.5 per cent to 3.21 million units.
Toyota forecast its first operating loss in 71 years as sales crater in the US, Japan and Europe.
Spending on new cars in Japan has dropped as the country's jobless rate climbed to 3.9 per cent from 3.7 per cent in November.
Toyota is down 17 per cent and sales at Honda Motor Co. dropped 25 per cent to 27,505 units.
Sales at Nissan Motor Co., Japan's third-largest automaker, fell 22 per cent to 26,934 vehicles last month.
More from Motoring
More from Life & Style
Popular in Motoring
Life & Style editor's choice
-
Ten simple ways to love yourself
Just a few small changes to your day can make a big difference
-
Style story: Make waves with beachwear
Life's a beach in this summer's gorgeous new swimwear
-
2012 Ford Focus: Smashingly good
The all-new Focus turned Imran Malik Hulk-green with rage at one point
Multimedia
