Domestic sales of new cars, trucks and buses, excluding mini-vehicles fell for the fifth consecutive month in November and are bound to end the year down from 2004 amid rising fuel prices and as consumers prefer to buy flat TVs and mobile phones, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association (JADA) said. The association said sales of vehicles last month tumbled 8.2 pct year-on-year to 305,569 units, the lowest sales volume for the month of November since 1974 when it stood at 304,001. "Sales of new vehicles, especially passenger cars, are weakening recently due to surging gasoline prices combined with a change in consumer behavior as consumers are increasingly becoming willing to buy more flat TVs and spend more on cellular phones," a JADA official said. "Due to the rapid slowdown of late, new auto sales are now destined to see a year-on-year decline in entire 2005 from a year earlier," he added. For the whole of 2004, new vehicle sales reached 3.962 mln units, but accumulated sales between January and November of this year reached only 3.654 mln units. Passenger car sales slid 9.7 pct to 258,463 units while sales of buses jumped 23.8 pct to 1,161 units and truck sales rose 0.9 pct to 45,945 units. Separately, the Japan Mini-Vehicle Association reported that sales of mini-vehicles in November increased 3.0 pct year-on-year to 157,737 units, rising for the eighth straight month, as consumers prefer buying more fuel-economy mini-cars.