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Japanese Auto Sales Surge

By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com

October 25, 2006

• Global Auto Market Faces "Outright Collapse" in 2009 • Ford Flex, Mazda Cx-9 Rank Among Best Three-Row SUVs • Hispanic-Americans Pay More For Used Car Loans • GM Offers Employee Prices to Spur Slow Sales • U.S. Consumers Favor Japanese and German Automakers • Automakers Report Huge Drop in Sales • GM Cuts Prices for February • Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM • New GM Sale May Challenge Bargain Hunters • GM Hangs on as World's No. 1 Automaker • Saturn Outlook Gets High Marks from Consumer Reports • Summer Car Sales Start to Sizzle • Consumer Reports Lists Best New Car Deals • Chrysler Dumps Remaining 2006 Inventory on Used Car Market --- • More about Auto Sales ...

Toyota Motor Corp. is closing in on General Motors Corp. as the world's No. 1 automaker as the its global production rose 3.8 percent in September.

Consumers are lining up for Toyota products, including the Prius hybrid, Corolla compact and the midsize Camry, the best-selling car in the U.S. for eight of the last nine years.

Earlier this month, the first hybrid version of the Toyota Camry made outside Japan rolled off the assembly line of its Kentucky plant, positioning the Japanese automaker to take an even larger share of the gasoline-electric vehicle market in the U.S.

GM in 2005 sold 9.2 million vehicles globally. Toyota surpassed Ford Motor Co. in terms of vehicle sales in 2003. Toyota has predicted it will boost global sales to 9.8 million vehicles in 2008.

Honda Motor Co. sales are up in the U.S. as well as the company set a first-half record in auto sales at 1.78 million vehicles. Sales are up 6.3 percent from a year ago, in large part because of increasing sales in the U.S.

For the July-September period Honda sold 884,000 vehicles, up 6 percent from 2005. North American vehicle sales climbed 4.3 percent in the quarter to 411,000 vehicles.

The news from Honda comes at a time when General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. are struggling as Japanese carmakers continue to cut into their market share amid high gasoline prices.

Ford said Monday that it had lost $5.8 billion in the July-September quarter due to sagging North American sales and huge costs associated with a massive restructuring plan. That is the largest quarterly loss in more than 14 years for the nation's second-biggest automaker.

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