Auto sales in China up through November

New car sales in China are up 4 percent for the first 11 months of the year compared to the same period of 2011 a manufacturers association said. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said sales for the year through November reached 17.49 million cars, a number that is expected to top 19 million by the end of the year. A sharp drop in consumer interest in Japanese cars is beginning a turnaround, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Japanese brands made up 20 percent of new car sales in China until a territorial dispute suddenly sent Japanese brands out of favor. The dispute over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea is not over, but the impact on sales appears to be waning. Japanese passenger car sales were at 7.61 percent of the market in October, but rose to 11.65 percent in November as Japanese automobile companies have been aggressively discounting prices and compensating car owners whose cars were damaged by protesters when the dispute flared up.