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Toyota’s Share
Even with its 32 percent sales decline, Toyota’s market share was 17.9 percent, up from 16.5 percent a year earlier.
Honda sold 71,031 vehicles, down from 98,511. Among its models, only the redesigned Fit hatchback and new Acura TSX posted gains from a year earlier.
Market share for Tokyo-based Honda was 10.8 percent, up from 9.4 percent in January 2008.
Nissan’s sales fell to 53,884 from 76,605 a year earlier. Still, the Tokyo-based company’s market share rose 0.9 point to 8.2 percent.
Toyota rose 4.5 percent to 3,010 yen, at the close of trading in Tokyo. Honda gained 6.3 percent to 2,190 yen in Tokyo, and Nissan rose 7.5 percent, to 288 yen.
Hyundai’s sales increase to 24,512 units came after it announced a company-sponsored “assurance” policy last month that the company said protects customers’ investment in new cars and trucks against loss of job or income for a year.
“We definitely got some good momentum from the assurance program,” Dave Zuchowski, Hyundai’s vice president of U.S. sales, said in an interview yesterday. “Based on what we’ve heard from dealers, there’s no doubt the program generated business.”
Hyundai, which advertised the buyback program during the Super Bowl on Feb. 1, also gained from the surprise victory of its new Genesis luxury sedan as North American Car of the Year in mid-January. Genesis was the first of Hyundai to win such acclaim, decided by a vote of automotive journalists.
Hyundai’s market share rose to 3.7 percent last month, up 1.6 points, according to Autodata.
In Seoul, Hyundai gained 8 percent to 51,900 won at the end of trading on the Korea Stock Exchange.
Kia, Subaru
Kia said it sold 22,096 cars and light trucks last month, up from 21,355 a year ago.
Kia rose 780 won, or 9.7 percent, to 8,790 won in Korea Stock Exchange trading today.
Subaru, the automotive unit of Tokyo-based Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., joined Hyundai and Kia in bucking the market’s overall declining, reporting an 8 percent increase in sales of its sedans, wagons and sport-utility vehicles. Toyota owns 16.5 percent of Fuji Heavy.
Mazda Motor Corp., a Ford affiliate, reported a 27 percent drop in its sales to 15,420.
Among smaller Japanese brands, Mitsubishi Motors Corp. sold 4,730 vehicles, down 35 percent, and sales for Suzuki Motor Corp.’s U.S. unit dropped 49 percent to 3,655.
January had 26 selling days, 1 more than a year earlier. Some automakers release results adjusted for sales days, meaning the totals will be about 4 percent lower than unadjusted numbers. Bloomberg uses unadjusted figures.
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