Honda says Sept China auto sales down 40.5 pct yr-on-yr

BEIJING Oct 9 (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co Ltd and its China joint ventures sold 33,931 vehicles in the country in September, down 40.5 percent from a year earlier, the Japanese automaker said on Tuesday.

For the first nine months, sales were up 9.5 percent at 469,993 vehicles, Honda said in a statement.

Honda makes vehicles in China in partnership with Dongfeng Motor Group Co and Guangzhou Automobile Group Co .

Sales have plunged at Japanese car makers since violent protests and calls for boycotts of Japanese products broke out across China in mid-September over the Japanese government's purchase of a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea from their private owner.

(Reporting by Fang Yan in BEIJING and Kazunori Takada in SHANGHAI; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)