TOYOTA Motor Corp's mainstay vehicle operations are likely to post their first ever loss for the fiscal year through March 2009, Japanese media reports said yesterday, highlighting the dire conditions faced by global auto makers.

The Nikkei, Japan's top business daily, said Toyota's standalone operating result will be a loss for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009. It did not cite sources. Kyodo News had a similar report.

The reports said that the Toyota group of companies -- including Daihatsu Motor Co, which makes small cars, and truck maker Hino Motors -- will manage to post a profit for the fiscal year through March 2009.

The company declined comment on the reports.

Toyota, which makes the popular Camry sedan and Prius gas-electric hybrid, has never reported a full fiscal year loss since it began disclosing operating profit in 1941.

But Japanese auto makers -- which had until recently avoided the serious problems of their United States rivals -- are getting hammered by plunging auto sales in the key US market and elsewhere.

The surging yen, which erodes overseas earnings, has also battered their bottom line. The US dollar has fallen to 13-year lows below 90 yen.

Analysts say calculations show that a loss for Toyota alone may be inevitable, given the strong yen and plunging auto sales.

'It looks as though Toyota will fall into red ink for the full year,' said Mamoru Katou, auto analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research. 'Things have clearly gotten worse since the earlier outlook of breaking even.'