Honda has come out a winner and Mazda has made a dramatic comeback, while all other major automakers suffered shrinking sales in the domestic market.

April-September earnings reports, the last of which was released Friday, also show that Honda Motor Co., the nation's No. 3 automaker, could become No. 2 at the end of the current business year, pulling ahead of Nissan Motor Co. in terms of consolidated sales.

For the entire business year through March 1999, Honda now projects consolidated sales of 6.4 trillion yen -- exactly the same target earlier released by Nissan, which has long retained the No. 2 position but is now suffering from huge losses and weighed down by enormous debt.