Toyota's Prius maintains top spot in Japan auto sales

• Source: Xinhua
• [13:07 March 04 2010]
• Comments

Toyota's hybrid car, the Prius, was the biggest-selling car in Japan in February, marking the ninth consecutive month that the vehicle has been on top in the nation, according to data released by the Japanese Automobile Dealers Association on Thursday.

The Prius sold 22,306 units in February, an increase of 497 percent from a year earlier.

Photo taken on Feb. 5, 2010 shows the logo of the Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius hybrid car at a car dealer in New York, the United States. Photo: Xinhua

Toyota had four other models in the top ten selling vehicles for the month in February. The Vitz was third, selling 11,003 units, the Passo fourth, selling 10,768 units, the Corrola fifth, selling 10,623 units and the Voxy ranked ninth, selling 6,851 units.

The second biggest selling car in the nation was Honda's Fit, which sold 13,967 units, an increase of 46.2 percent on the previous year. The automaker's Freed also made the top ten at number seven, selling 8,192 units. The Step Wagon ranked the eighth, selling 7,828 units.

Nissan cars made up the rest of the top ten, with the Serena ranking the sixth and selling 8,311 units, and the Note ranking the tenth and selling 6,688 units.

Japan's automakers have recently been in crisis amid massive recalls for models by some of its companies. Toyota has had to recall millions of vehicles worldwide because of faults with the brakes and accelerators on some of its models, while Honda and Nissan have also had to bring cars back to dealerships for repairs.

Wide media coverage have increased public awareness of the faults in the cars, and there could be a decline in sales in the coming months.