Japan automakers set U.S. sales records



NEW YORK (Kyodo) U.S. sales at Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. rose to record highs for 2005, while their American rivals continued to struggle due to poor performances of their sport utility vehicles, according to a research firm.


The U.S. market share of all Japanese carmakers rose to 32.2 percent, up 1.8 percentage points from 2004, as consumers apparently chose fuel-efficient vehicles in the face of high gasoline prices, Autodata Corp. said Wednesday.

Toyota Motor Corp., which is threatening to overtake General Motors Corp. as the world's largest carmaker by output, saw sales advance 9.7 percent from the previous year to 2.26 million units, lagging behind DaimlerChrysler Corp. by only about 40,000 units.

It is expected that Japan's largest carmaker will overtake the American arm of DaimlerChrysler AG of Germany in U.S. sales this year.

Honda Motor Co.'s sales rose 4.9 percent to 1.46 million units, marking a fresh record high for the ninth consecutive year, while Nissan Motor Co. saw a 9.2 percent increase to 1.07 million units, the first time its U.S. sales topped 1 million.

Sales at GM and Ford Motor Co. dropped more than 4 percent each as they faced management difficulties with massive deficits. Some analysts point to the possibility that GM might file for Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code.

GM's sales fell 4.4 percent to 4.41 million units, while Ford saw a 4.7 percent decline to 2.95 million units. DaimlerChrysler recorded a 4.5 percent rise to 2.30 million units. The Big Three automakers have seen their market share fall by a total of about 13 percentage points over the last five years to around 57 percent.

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