Toyota begins to taste bitter in China: report

For the first time in years, Toyota has dropped from the top 10 list of the best selling cars in China in February, the China Daily reported Tuesday.

FAW Toyota, the Japanese automaker's joint venture in China, disappeared from the top 10 sales list for the first time, the newspaper quoted statistics released by China Passenger Car Association as saying.

Although Toyota China said its total sales rose 30 percent in February from a year earlier to 45,400 units, the figure continued a sharp decrease from 72,000 vehicles in the previous month.

In January, the recall-plagued brand encountered the first drop of 16.3 percent from last December in the world's largest auto market.

A survey conducted by Chinese website Sina.com showed that 73.6 percent online respondents said they would not buy Toyota or Honda branded cars after the recalls, with only 16.4 percent maintaining Japanese cars are still their preference, said the newspaper.

The online poll was conducted on 258,000 participants between March 1 and March 8, 2010. Sina.com provided no demographic breakdown, according to the newspaper.