Japan’s Auto Market Sinks to 37 Year Lows
Just when you think things can’t get any worse in the car market, just when you think we have hit rock bottom someone throws us a shovel. The latest downturn in the auto market has come to us via Japan. Japan has been a thriving market of auto manufacturing for many years, producing such acclaimed car brands as Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and Mazda. These car brands have become the finest cars sold in the US, really cornering much of the market because of their quality, high resale, relativly low prices, and dependability. It seems however that the Japanese new car market has hit it’s lowest point in nearly four decades, this according to http://news.xinhuanet.com/:
“Domestic sales of new vehicles, excluding minivehicles, in Japan declined 27.9 percent in January from a year earlier to 174,281 units for the sixth consecutive monthly decline.
The figure was about half the peak of 325,468 cars logged in January 1990, the association said. The sales logged fall for six consecutive months. Meanwhile, the Japan Mini Vehicles Association said sales of minivehicles fell 5.6 percent from a year earlier to 127,426 units for the third consecutive monthly decline.”
You know that things can’t be looking to good at Ford, GM, and Chrysler right now since the Japanese car makers have more or less been eating American car makers alive for decades. Hopefully we will start to see a rebound in the domestic and foreign car markets sooner then later so we can finally have some good auto news to relate!
Japan isn’t the only one hurting. South Korea’s exports have dropped so substantially that they are now in a recession, something that hasn’t happened in 1998. Ouch.