If Australian Toyota and Honda executives reckon they’ve had it tough clawing back sales lost after last year’s Japanese earthquake and tsunami, they should spare a thought for their colleagues in North America.
Figures released overnight show Toyota sold 141,910 vehicles in North America in September and Honda sold 117,211.
At first glance you might think they’re good stats, but consider the magnitude of the problem: Toyota’s number is 41.5 per-cent better than September last year and Honda’s is 30.9 per-cent up on 2011.
In fact Nissan - North America’s fifth best-selling brand - was the least affected by production disruptions at home in Japan and in September racked-up sales of 91,907 units which is 1.1 per-cent down on 2011.
General Motors continues to lead the sales race in North America with 210,245 sales in September (1.5 per-cent better than 12 months ago), which was well ahead of Ford with 174,454 sales (0.2 per cent down on September 2011). North American sales of Ford’s small cars are at their strongest level since 2002.
Toyota’s performance was good enough to secure third position, ahead of Chrysler.
