Domestic new vehicle sales excluding minicars edged down 0.7% from the previous year to total 3,913,184 units in fiscal 2005 ended last Friday due to weak passenger car sales, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said on Monday.

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According to Kyodo News, shipments dropped for the third consecutive year, falling below the 4m mark for two straight years. The figure is off about 2m units from the peak level reached in 1990 and was the lowest in the past 20 years.


Minivehicle sales, in contrast, rose 3.6% to 1,948,362 units, increasing three years in a row, and reached a new record high for the first time in six years thanks to brisk sales of new models, according to data released the same day by the Japan Mini Vehicles Association.


Overall vehicle sales including the mini category increased about 40,000 units to about 5,861,546, rising for the first time in two years.


Higher petrol prices appear to have caused non-minicar producers to lose business to the marketers of minivehicles, but sales also seem to have fallen presumably because consumers spent more on products other than cars, said officials with the Japan Automobile Dealers Association.

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In the non-mini category, sales of passenger cars declined 1.6% to 3,338,096 whereas truck sales went up 5.4% to 557,228 as users replaced their old fleets with more eco-friendly vehicles in order to meet tougher environmental regulations.


Among major manufacturers, Honda and Mazda recorded modest sales increases while Toyota and Nissan saw lower shipments.


Mitsubishi Motors, which is in the process of a major turnaround drive, saw its sales surge 18.4%. But the company barely managed to meet its business target as the combined sales of its mini and non-mini vehicles totaled some 256,000 units, Kyodo News noted.