Toyota Motor Corp.'s Corolla model topped Japan's vehicle sales rankings during the first half of the year, after the company revamped the model in October for the first time in six years.
Sales of the Corolla rose 9.4 percent to 77,326 units in the six months to June 30 from a year earlier, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said in a release Thursday. Toyota also took second place with the Vitz compact. Honda Motor Co.'s Fit compact was the third-best-selling model.
Compact cars, with engines of 1 to 1.5 liters, make up the second-largest car segment in Japan behind minicars. The category commanded a 28.9 percent market share, or about 1.56 million vehicles, in 2006, and will grow to 29.4 percent this year, according to Hirofumi Yokoi, an analyst at CSM Worldwide.
"The segment will grow the fastest this year, driven by the top-selling three models, particularly the new Corolla," Yokoi said. CSM forecasts the minicar category will drop from a 37.3 percent share in 2006 to 36.4 percent this year.
In June, the Corolla topped the sales ranking for a ninth straight month, followed by Toyota's Vitz and Honda's Fit.
Toyota, which sells four out of every 10 vehicles in Japan, claimed four of the top 10 slots in last month's sales rankings. Honda, Japan's second-biggest automaker, had two, including the Stream minivan. Nissan Motor Co., Japan's third-largest automaker, had three, including the fourth-ranked Serena minivan and eighth-ranked Tiida compact.
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