Some forecasters expected Japan’s appetite for new cars to drop by more than 20 percent in the last quarter after government incentives expired in September. So far, it is not happening. Sales of new cars, trucks and buses declined a minuscule 0.4 percent in November. Elsewhere you may read that the market was down 3.3 percent, but they are not giving you the whole story. Sales of mini vehicles, or kei cars actually were up in November, pulling the market nearly completely out of minus territory.
Sales of regular vehicles were down 3.3 percent to 243,974 units, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association JADA said today. Honda’s sales dropped an alarming 40.4 percent, those of Nissan are down 12.2 percent. Don’t be too alarmed about Honda, they made it more than up elsewhere …
Data provided by the Japan Mini Vehicle Association paint a different picture for kei cars. Honda tore into the kei car market with a number of (slightly) different NBOXes. Honda’s kei sales were up a huge 275.5 percent and helped lift the market for mini vehicles by 4.6 percent in November.
| Total vehicle sales Japan November 2012 | ||||||
| Manufacturer | Nov ’12 | Nov ’11 | YoY | YTD ’12 | YTD ’11 | YoY |
| Daihatsu | 47,142 | 52,657 | -10.5% | 635,475 | 500,701 | 26.9% |
| Hino | 3,550 | 3,068 | 15.7% | 38,467 | 30,792 | 24.9% |
| Honda | 50,150 | 40,927 | 22.5% | 700,407 | 462,073 | 51.6% |
| Isuzu | 4,556 | 4,185 | 8.9% | 54,400 | 37,802 | 43.9% |
| Lexus | 3,162 | 3,795 | -16.7% | 40,690 | 40,123 | 1.4% |
| Mazda | 14,597 | 14,830 | -1.6% | 205,974 | 177,793 | 15.9% |
| Mitsubishi | 10,451 | 11,456 | -8.8% | 132,021 | 137,450 | -3.9% |
| Mitsubishi Fuso | 2,706 | 3,159 | -14.3% | 31,830 | 24,448 | 30.2% |
| Nissan | 46,484 | 54,806 | -15.2% | 620,810 | 546,210 | 13.7% |
| Subaru | 15,119 | 14,163 | 6.7% | 163,545 | 143,248 | 14.2% |
| Suzuki | 50,548 | 51,323 | -1.5% | 632,830 | 509,244 | 24.3% |
| Toyota | 124,952 | 122,364 | 2.1% | 1,552,267 | 1,060,225 | 46.4% |
| UD Trucks | 773 | 955 | -19.1% | 8,366 | 7,593 | 10.2% |
| Other | 19,752 | 17,879 | 10.5% | 214,136 | 183,312 | 16.8% |
| Total | 393,942 | 395,567 | -0.4% | 5,031,218 | 3,861,014 | 30.3% |
Consolidated, it looks like this. The market is down only slightly. Nissan’s COO Toshiyuki Shiga said in a recent interview with The Nikkei [sub] that he thinks “sales declines in response to the end of the subsidy program should be limited.” And indeed, that appears to be the case.
Re. the main photo: Either the man in the picture is quite small in stature, or Kei cars aren’t as small as I’ve imagined. It looks really tall! And rather big. From the picture, it looks like a slightly narrower Dodge Nitro or something.
It’s a much, much narrower Dodge Nitro, probably with Honda Fit running gear. Even if he isn’t small, that car is barely two shoulder-breadths wide.
I like it.
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/07/review-from-the-backseat-king-of-the-kei-cars-the-honda-nbox-japanese-spec/
Bertel reviewed the Honda NBox. It is less than 59 inches wide, but it is very tall. The engine is only about 660 cc, or less than half the size of any offered in a Fit.
I believe he’s 6’2″. That’s Martin Köller. Look how that Honda fits into the lane. Tons of room around it. We could do with this class in most of our overcrowded cities.
That thing looks very sturdy, and like the doors would go THONKKKK.