[January 03, 2006] For first time, Toyota ranks 2nd in car sales in Italy in December+ Tweet (Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)ROME, Jan. 3_(Kyodo) _ Toyota ranked second for the first time in car sales in Italy in December after Fiat, according to Italy's land transportation bureau. Toyota won the highest rank in Italy's car sales among foreign automakers and became the first Japanese carmaker to rank second. Nissan ranked 21st and Honda 24th, according to the bureau's data released Monday. For all of last year, Fiat clinched the top-selling spot with about 464,000 vehicles, followed by Opel, Ford and Volkswagen. Toyota was the seventh-largest seller with 127,000 units. Overall car sales in Italy came to 2.23 million vehicles, according to the bureau. A spokesman for Toyota's Italian unit said the strong performance in December is due to brisk sales of the Aygo, a compact car Toyota introduced in the fall. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]