This is news as of today.

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2007/gb20070424_480904.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index _top+story

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a6qPrxIsq13s&refer=home

TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp. surpassed General Motors Corp. in quarterly sales for the first time, making it the world's biggest auto maker.

Toyota sold 2.348 million vehicles world-wide in the January to March period, topping the 2.26 million vehicles that GM sold in the same three-month period. GM has been the world's No. 1 auto maker for more than 70 years.

While the sales figures released Tuesday are only quarterly results, they represent the first time Toyota has surpassed GM in global sales. Analysts say it is just a matter of time before the Japanese auto maker surpasses GM in its annual figures.

Toyota has been steadily grabbing market share from its Detroit-based rival in the key U.S. market, as high gas-prices lure Americans to Toyota's smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles such as the Camry, Corolla and Prius hybrid and away from GM's larger trucks and sport-utility vehicles. Sales of Toyota's high-end Lexus line grew 7% to 322,000 vehicles last year, making it the top-selling luxury brand in the U.S.

Toyota's success comes as Detroit's Big Three struggle to revive earnings while dealing with the burden of plant closures and steep labor and health-care costs. GM and Ford Motor Co., the No. 3 auto maker by sales, have both posted massive losses this year. DaimlerChrysler AG has put its money-losing Chrysler unit up for sale.

Analysts say Toyota has purposely downplayed its transition to No. 1 in order to avoid consumer backlash in the U.S. or rekindle trade tensions of the 1970s and 1980s. On Tuesday, Toyota would not acknowledge its position, saying it does not comment on other auto makers' sales.

"Our only objective is to be No. 1 in terms of quality. We'll let the numbers speak for themselves," a company spokesman says.

Toyota has tried to localize itself in order to ease into the key U.S. market, of which it now holds a 16% market share. The car maker currently has 11 plants in the U.S., giving the company a manufacturing capacity of around 2 million vehicles a year in North America. At Toyota's launch of its 2007 Tundra pickup truck, produced at its plant in San Antonio, American Toyota executives stressed that the pickup is: "Made in Texas, by Texans, for Texans."

Earlier this month, as Toyota's quarterly sales announcement approached, the company appointed its first non-Japanese member of the board, Jim Press. Analysts say this could be another way to curb potential anti-Japanese sentiment, amid Detroit's ongoing problems.

http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/cadillac-non-model-specific-discussion/105377-toyota-now-1-a.html#post1060699



Had a feeling this would be reposted after my thread was moved... :/

Bring it on!

Oh what a feeling!:mad:

Whoops! Another one!

http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/cadillac-non-model-specific-discussion/105377-toyota-now-1-a.html#post1060699

http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/cadillac-forums-lounge-member-introductions/105393-toyota-passes-general-motors-worlds-top.html

True dat.

One question. Do you mean ball or balls?

merged

One question. Do you mean ball or balls?Definitely a ball.

It's a minor drop in the bucket, and not at all even a concern. As GM themselves have said, who's where on what list doesn't matter, it matters what the products are you're putting out, how good they are, and how strong of a clientale base you have.

Anyone can be bigger and make more, but that always comes at the expense of other things. Toyota still has a great reputation, but for instance, has been plagued by more recalls, general vehicle issues (build quality big time in the past couple of years), and designs that are still as exciting as a stove. They're a great company, and GM too was in the same boat for many years, but in the end it's just a numbers race on paper to get the newspaper writers excited.

Of course, then again, people are so dumb to this anymore, they see it in the headlines, and all of a sudden it's back to thinking all the domestic vehicles and makers are crap again, and that they're going to need lots of new incentives and such to beg people to buy their theoretical glut of subpar products. So far from the truth it's insane, but I've read similar statements on so many car boards in the past few days, it's shockingly clear how any kind of stupid news influence has on uneducated people.