2009 Japanese Sales Totals

Total Japanese sales--4,508,991
Top 5
Toyota--1,995,235
Honda--625,516
Suzuki--617,229
Nissan--599,466
Mazda--204,296

Total Imports--178,527--3.9%

Must be nice to have a closed home market.

Is that similar to a closed mind?

yes. It would be very difficult for anyone to make the case for Japan having an open-market for automobiles.

Japanese people tend to be even more nationalistic than Americans - do you really think they'd buy GM products, even if they were available?

I think if the vehicles were readily available, the import slice of the Japanese market would approach 25%.

are you going to by a import?
beside chevy?

25%?! From 4? That's an incredible jump. What portion of those do you guess would be American, and what portion would be German?

i don't mean 4 from 25 overnight. I mean if the market in japan had followed the lead of the Us in the early 1970's and say chevy's could have been sold out of toyota showrooms and bmw's could have been sold out of Nissan showrooms etc. My guess is it would be very closely split between european and american cars as imports.

?

It consistantly amazes me that you think bashing the competition is more fruitful than praising your own products. It just goes to show that you STILL don't have a product to be proud of to sell to those of us seeking to limit our OPEC funding.


As if the Japanese have a need for gas guzzling trucks! How many Tundra's does Toyota sell in Japan? Could it be that there is no market for guzzlers over there?

Gas-guzzlers? Where did I say anything about gas guzzlers?

That's what you have traditionally sold. Gas is very expensive in Japan, which is why tiny cars and rice rockets are the norm over there. GM products do not match their market very well. Nor has GM been willing to foresee the US market moving towards efficiency, though all the signs were there. (could have something to do with all the board members with ties to oil companies)

You are right that Americans should lean towards American cars. But we're still waiting for one that accomplishes the goal of ending the money flow to OPEC. Till then, the Prius is the least of the worst option. I'd rather send my money to Japan than Saudi Arabia. I'd really like to keep it here in the US, but it's not possible yet.

Where's my damn Volt already?

You mean the EV2? You're not going to fall for that trick again, are you Charlie Brown?

Oh, but wait, hydrogen is just around the corner. :der:

sorry
its BUY.

japan buys a lot of own japanese cars.
but in the us there are a lot of americans that just buy US brand.

and GM is not builing cars that fit the japan market but japan is making cars just for the Us market.

you see.

I'm curious where you get that from. Are you Japanese? Is there any evidence of this other that just you saying it's so? I'm not asking for like peer-reviewed studies here, just soemthing better than some blog posting?

How about this (yeah, yeah Wikipedia...)?

Mid-size car - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm not trying to criticize you personally here, so don't take it that way. I just think it's interesting that people pull out the jingoism...blah,blah,blah before the practical considerations.

FYI to all,

The above number includes trucks, buses and K-cars.
Very few these vehicles (other than passenger cars) are imported to Japan.

2009 Japanese passenger car sales data
total: 2,473,492
top 5
Toyota: 1,238,137
Honda: 461,736
Nissan: 407,142
Mazda: 137,063
Subaru: 75,492

total imports: 166,820: 13.5%

Japanese people like to buy attractive and value for money cars, and the top 5 imports are...
VW: 37,928
BMW: 29,090
Mercedes-Benz: 28,740
Audi: 16,171
BMW Mini: 11,002

Top 5 American brands are...
Ford: 3,049
Dodge: 1,267
Cadillac: 1,017
Jeep: 1,010
Chrysler: 890

Ken@Japan

Stop the spin:
columns are 4th qtr 2009 4th qtr 2008 year 2009 year 2008

Volkswagen division .......................... 9,422 10,854 37,928 45,522
Audi.................................................... 4,616 4,281 16,171 16,040
Bentley .............................................. 49 62 180 292
Lamborghini ...................................... 27 32 88 142

VOLKSWAGEN AG........................ 14,114 15,229 54,367 61,996

Mini .................................................... 2,738 2,886 11,002 12,744
BMW division .................................... 8,220 7,162 29,090 35,945
Alpina ................................................ 54 19 129 191
Rolls-Royce........................................ 3 11 21 33

BMW GROUP ............................ 11,015 10,078 40,242 48,913

Smart ................................................ 122 209 642 1,111
Mercedes-Benz .................................. 6,910 6,594 28,740 37,002

DAIMLER GROUP ........................ 7,032 6,803 29,382 38,113

Ford Japan-built ................................ – – – 1
Ford Import ........................................ 649 745 3,049 3,818
Volvo† ................................................ 1,705 1,355 6,213 7,531
Aston Martin ...................................... 22 39 110 201

FORD MOTOR CO. ...................... 2,376 2,139 9,372 11,551

Chevrolet Japan-built ........................ 1,291 2,180 7,495 9,277
GM North America**.......................... 642 631 2,490 2,859
Opel.................................................... 1 – 2 –
Saab .................................................. 24 40 184 237

GENERAL MOTORS ...................... 1,958 2,851 10,171 12,373

Peugeot ............................................ 1,251 1,054 4,365 6,171
Citroen.............................................. 308 372 1,400 1,497

PSA ........................................ 1,559 1,426 5,765 7,668

Chrysler.............................................. 225 277 890 1,593
Dodge ................................................ 265 375 1,267 1,569
Jeep.................................................... 232 414 1,010 2,352
Maybach ............................................ 2 3 10 12

CHRYSLER AG............................ 724 1,069 3,177 5,526

Jaguar ................................................ 267 435 1,257 2,143
Land Rover ........................................ 165 139 579 983

JAGUAR LAND ROVER‡ ................ 432 574 1,836 3,126
JAPANESE REIMPORT .................. 3,142 4,063 13,590 23,494

TOTAL IMPORT .......................... 45,654 47,191 178,527 219,231

Total car .................................. 739,726.. 547,911.. 2,640,311.. 2,800,664
Total minivehicle ........................ 397,800..421,312.. 1,688,171.. 1,869,893
Total light-truck .......................... 42,304.. 52,017 180,509.. 249,655
Total medium/heavy truck ............22,838.. 30,469.. 87,692.. 146,690
Total bus .................................. 2,521.. 2,857.. 12,572.. 15,333
GRAND TOTAL ............................1,205,189 ..1,054,566.. 4,609,255.. 5,082,235

TOTAL LIGHT VEHICLES ...........1,179,830.. 1,021,240.. 4,508,991 ..4,920,212

I don`t think people realize just how incredibly expensive it is to own most imported cars in Japan.

Not purchase price, not "because they`re imported" - but just regular ownership tax. As far as I know, this type of tax doesn`t exist in the US.

It is calculated based on the size of the car, size of the engine, weight of the car, etc (I forget all the things that effect the amount)... And also there are engine and body checks to make sure the car stays within the regulations.

Most imported US cars are not designed for this, and they fall in very very high tax brackets. The taxes and the physical size limitations (of roads and parking) have nothing to do with shutting out foreign cars. Regardless of the quality of the car, most people are simply not going to buy cars that will continue to cost them very high ownership taxes each year.

If there were cars designed by US companies that followed all the Japanese regulations and that were designed to also fit into the normal tax brackets, etc, there would be more of a chance. But in general they do not so the only people buying US cars are people who want a US car at any price and do not care about things like annual car tax, not fitting in a lot of parking spaces, etc.

US companies tend to whine and say they should be exempt from the regular criteria, and that judging their cars by the law is unfair, etc... But that is silly in my opinion.

Imagine that, a special huge tax on american cars. Hmmmm...........

You think cars are bad... wait till ya check out motor bikes...



I'm just saying...