The Toyota Corolla was the best-selling car in Japan for the third consecutive year in 2005, although its sales slumped 13.6 percent to 149,810 vehicles, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said Wednesday.

The Toyota Vitz came in second, followed by the Honda Fit. The Vitz saw sales of 131,935 units and the Fit 125,894.

Six types of Toyota cars made the top 10 list. Honda and Nissan had two each. The Note compact, which Nissan debuted last January, ranked fifth.

No cars made by Mitsubishi Motors Corps. were listed among the top 30 in the wake of a recall scandal over defective cars.

In December alone, the Honda Fit became the best-selling car for the first time since December 2004, selling 9,162 units.

Import car sales slip

Sales of imported motor vehicles in 2005 slipped 1.7 percent from the previous year to 268,112 units, the second straight annual decline, an industry body said in a preliminary report Wednesday.

The total includes 248,993 foreign-brand vehicles, up 2.1 percent, and 19,119 Japanese vehicles manufactured overseas, down 34.0 percent, according to the Japan Automobile Importers Association.

Volkswagen held the largest share of the import car market at 19.93 percent, with 53,441 units sold, down 3.5 percent from 2004.

Mercedes-Benz came second with a 17.22 percent share after selling 46,161 vehicles, up 4.0 percent, followed by BMW, which took 16.78 percent of the market with 44,980 units, up 16.2 percent.

For December alone, imported vehicle sales rose 2.3 percent from a year earlier to 27,691 units.

Sales of foreign-brand vehicles increased 3.7 percent to 26,403, while those of Japanese vehicles made abroad dropped 19.9 percent to 1,288.