Japan Car Production By Brand : 1980-89

1980 Mazda 323. I owned a 5-door model

This was the decade that Japan really expanded its car production offshore. The first plants opened in North America as follows: Honda '82, Nissan '83, Toyota '84, Mazda '87, Mitsubishi '88 and Subaru/Isuzu '89 and Suzuki (Canada) '89. How would it affect domestic production? The number of passenger cars made in Japan from 1979 to 1989 increased by nearly 2.9 million! It obviously was too early to have too much impact in this decade.

Individually most grew consistently but two didn't at all. On the negative side Nissan flat-lined from 1980 to 1990, and it's share of car making in Japan dropped from 27.6 to 21.8%. The positive was Suzuki increasing enormously from 1.2% to 4.8% of total production.

	Year	Toyota	Nissan	Honda	Mazda	Mitsub
	1980	2,303,284	1,940,615	845,514	736,544	659,622
	1981	2,248,171	1,864,251	852,177	840,630	606,883
	1982	2,258,253	1,815,792	854,463	824,247	572,644
	1983	2,380,753	1,858,782	857,686	861,580	523,754
	1984	2,413,133	1,846,407	843,807	764,309	547,838
	1985	2,569,284	1,864,701	956,410	815,074	570,865
	1986	2,684,024	1,769,484	1,025,403	811,371	578,642
	1987	2,708,069	1,803,924	1,021,895	853,309	594,654
	1988	2,982,922	1,730,948	1,072,773	880,131	639,890
	1989	3,055,101	1,972,508	1,155,682	967,665	708,418

	Year	Suzuki	Subaru	Daihatsu	Isuzu	Total
	1980	87,830	202,038	155,604	107,057	7,040,088
	1981	94,785	190,451	147,219	129,564	6,976,112
	1982	113,881	201,388	127,619	113,299	6,883,568
	1983	137,528	230,462	185,159	116,184	7,153,871
	1984	164,058	242,680	162,405	88,536	7,075,157
	1985	236,198	259,673	161,559	213,052	7,648,801
	1986	300,604	287,039	142,064	211,178	7,811,795
	1987	296,979	266,755	141,572	203,930	7,893,074
	1988	296,413	276,448	160,125	158,750	8,200,388
	1989	430,053	310,623	263,631	188,725	9,054,395

Data source: JAMA.

For 1960-69, please click here. 1970-79, please click here.

Sweden Car Sales By Brand : 1955-59

The 1959 Opel Kapitan 

The late 50's saw sales on the up as Europe was heading into prosperity. In 1952, just over 50,000 cars were registered but by 1959 the number had over trebled. It seemed the many smaller brands were now struggling and going backwards despite the good times. Borgward, GM US, Chrysler, Rootes, IFA and Leyland to name a few that fell back.

Volvo had been challenged by Ford for top spot in the previous five years and now VW and Opel/Vauxhall were the challengers. By 1959, Volvo had nearly a quarter of the sales and well ahead. Glas sold as the Goggomobil brand, although listed here as Glas. Unusual names dot the list and doing a search on the internet gives an insight to some good car manufacturers that didn't survive for various reasons.

	Brand	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959
	Volvo	25,017	26,268	27,911	31,151	39,029
	VW	25,876	23,406	27,257	24,827	31,147
	Opel/Vauxhall	17,198	21,691	30,915	27,856	29,426
	Ford	16,341	15,667	16,767	16,879	18,100
	Saab	4,516	6,427	8,261	8,186	9,495
	BMC	7,455	6,749	9,121	7,926	7,712
	Mercedes	3,228	5,552	6,485	6,840	7,521
	DKW	3,424	4,173	4,683	3,026	4,240
	Simca	1,581	2,421	3,441	2,878	4,111
	Renault	1,216	1,340	1,558	3,256	4,009
	Fiat	3,963	3,495	3,634	3,198	3,250
	Peugeot	1,129	1,764	2,737	2,611	2,702
	Borgward	5,123	2,762	2,278	2,082	2,324
	Citroën	237	231	363	786	1,019
	GM US	2,605	2,235	1,920	1,129	939
	Skoda	65	675	620	329	568
	Chrysler	1,687	1,241	905	650	514
	Rootes	1,101	869	1,579	596	469
	IFA/Wartburg	1,867	1,761	1,293	823	445
	AMC	194	89	82	277	354
	Glas – Goggo	35	153	292	331	235
	Leyland-Std	1,947	1,281	637	565	227
	BMW	275	222	278	245	219
	Porsche	70	115	146	139	219
	NSU				47	137
	Studebaker	298	267	238	114	129
	Lancia	1	4	50	109	118
	Moskvitch	168	49	157	71	84
	Rover	247	164	144	42	55
	De Soto	303	274	151	50	2
	Hudson	204	199	229	AMC
	Other	376	180	215	210	215
	Total	127,747	131,724	154,347	147,229	169,014

Data source: ABStatistik.

All other articles in the series: 1950-54, 1960-64, 1965-69, 1970-74, 1975-79,
1980-84, 1985-89, 1990-94, 1995-99, 2000-04, 2005-09, and 2010-14.