German Cars: Big in Japan

For the third year in a row, German carmakers dominated the Japanese import market, the Japanese Association of Auto Importers reported on Thursday. Leading the pack in 2002 was Volkswagen, which claimed a 21.6 percent share of the Japanese export market last year. Mercedes-Benz (17.3 percent) and BMW (12.9 percent) followed directly behind VW in second and third place. However, overall sales for the three companies in Japan were down in 2002 -- with VW selling 59,882 cars, two percent fewer than in 2001 and Mercedes down 10.2 percent to 47,983 cars and BMW down 0.9 percent to 35,728.