Sales of new automobiles plummeted to a record low for the month of April as the recession continued to hammer down volumes.
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Sales fell by 28.6% in April over the same month last year, to 166,365 vehicles.
A spokesperson for the Japanese Automobile Dealers Association was quoted in local press saying: “We have not seen a figure this low in recent years.”
Earlier this month, Toyota, Japan’s largest vehicle maker, said its output in Japan is likely to fall below 3m units in the 2009/10 fiscal year ending 31 March, possibly hitting the lowest level in 31 years.
Toyota expects domestic production to fall over 30% year on year to around 2.8m units, from the estimated 3.4m units for fiscal 2008/9.
