toyota overtakes GM as top world automaker

[vanbibber]

Toyota overtakes GM as top world auto maker

Japanese manufacturer beats out Detroit auto giant by 90,000 cars in the first quarter; market watchers expect company to beat GM for the year too.

April 24 2007: 5:50 AM EDT
TOKYO (Reuters) -- Toyota beat GM in quarterly sales for the first time ever, outselling its U.S. rival by around 90,000 units in the first quarter, making it the world's largest auto maker.
Both auto giants reported record sales for January-March, but Japan's top carmaker inched past Detroit-based GM (Charts, Fortune 500) as it ate into the struggling icon's market share on its home turf.
Toyota (Charts), maker of the Camry sedan -- the United States' most popular car -- said on Tuesday its global vehicle sales rose 9 percent in the quarter to 2.35 million units.
That compared with 2.26 million units, up 3 percent, for GM, which sells cars and trucks under a dozen brands including Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Opel and Saab.
GM said last week that put its global market share at an estimated 13.0 percent, down a tenth of a percentage point from a year ago.
Toyota's tally includes cars sold under the Lexus luxury brand and the youth-oriented Scion brand, as well as vehicles from Japanese unit Daihatsu and truck maker Hino Motors.
Many industry watchers expect Toyota to challenge the 99-year-old GM this year for the top spot in global sales, a position the U.S. automaker has held for 76 years.
Toyota dwarfs its rivals in almost every other measure including profits, market capitalization and cash reserves.





GM need to get their **** together :rant: :rant: :spank:

[Camaro Dom]

Re: toyota overtakes GM as top world automaker

GM is turning around.. hell, i'd like to see toyota get the #1 label for a bit...
think about it. the #1 always get the bad rap. was adidas crucified like 7 years ago about sweatshops? no, that was nike.
Do people always talk about how pepsi can take corrosion off a battery or the rust off a nail? no, they talk about coca-cola.
i could go on and on but u get the point. let toyota take the heat for a bit. I'm sick of hearing the news crucify GM anyways. Its bs... the company is making HUGE strides and completely restructuring itself. They've laid off alotta people, yes. But they're on the right track... they've turned saturn from crappy little econo-cars to something actually respectable, they're bringing back the camaro, the new sierra/silverado has got alotta cool innovations (like the 180 rear half door), their fit and finish is WAY improved...
Say what you want but i think the competiton toyota and honda pose is the best thing to happen to auto consumers in history. If you look at the overall quality of vehicles compared to price today as opposed to 10 or 20 years ago... theres just no comparison. Cars are built SOOO much better today. you can see the improvement in just the past 5 years with GM and ford. Especially with interior quality. Look at our interiors and how many gaps there are or pieces that dont fit quite right both interior and exterior. look at the HUGE gab where the b-pillar meets the rear quarter panel, or the oft maligned seam where the front bumper meets the front fender. our cars MSRP'd at about 18-20k base back 5 years ago. 18-20k base cars nowadays look like the 35k cars 5 years ago, from a fit and finish standpoint. Overall quality is improving massively, the companies are restructuring (hopefully the losses will be slashed as much as they say they are) and the quality for the price is just going up. the big three are getting a wakeup call and we're winning as consumers....
Cliffnotes: the big three arent going anywhere, most of this crap is news hype. The companies are WAY too big to die after a few bad years. they'll restructor themeselves, remain competetive and we'll get better cars for the money because of it.

[Mogobs30th]

Re: toyota overtakes GM as top world automaker

GM will not be happy if they're no #2 this year, and they will improve.

[Niko97RS]

Re: toyota overtakes GM as top world automaker

i just wana see the big 3 become the only 3...

[SpeedingFirebird]

Re: toyota overtakes GM as top world automaker

i just wana see the big 3 become the only 3...

Why? Competition equals goodness for the consumer.

"Toyota beat GM in quarterly sales for the first time ever, outselling its U.S. rival by around 90,000 units in the first quarter, making it the world's largest auto maker."

I'm not sure one quarter of sales is worthy of the title.

[UDLOSE98]

Re: toyota overtakes GM as top world automaker

hmmm, i thought this already happened a few months ago, no suprise

[josh98bird]

Re: toyota overtakes GM as top world automaker

Isn't GM purchasing Chrysler? They will be back on top. Its tough to be the best but its even harder to stay there.

[BLLDOGG]

Re: toyota overtakes GM as top world automaker

I highly doubt GM will, or even is thinking about purchase Chrysler. I was predicted this would happen this year. no surprise. GM is turning around but its a slow wide turn. business is really low for Ford and GM in North America but booming for both else where. It's the Americans who are not buying GM. Thats what I call loyalty.

[SpeedingFirebird]

Re: toyota overtakes GM as top world automaker

It's the Americans who are not buying GM. Thats what I call loyalty.

Let's face it, during the 80's the Big 3 couldn't make a car that lasted more than 100K miles. (people, spare me examples of 'my Dad's car blah blah blah'.) On a whole, the engine quality was much worse. Although most of these problems have been corrected, the big 3 suffer from that bad image. I hear it ALL the time. Until that image is reversed, Americans typically go elsewhere.

My main reason for not buying an American car is they don't bolt manuals to v6 sedans.

[HokieBird]

Re: toyota overtakes GM as top world automaker

GMs offer to buy chrysler was laughable. It won't happen. So far GM is doing a pretty good job of turning things around. It will take a while, but atleast plans are in motion.

The whole american cars all suck thing gets really old. People don't know what they are talking about so they just jump on a bandwagon.

Toyota had fantastic reliability in the 90s and now they are cashing in on that. Of course lately they have been having problems and recalls, but no one says anything about that. I also hate when people say oh well a camry is basically a lexus rebadged so it's pretty much buying a lexus. NO! lexus buyers are buying camrys.

[Camaro Dom]

Re: toyota overtakes GM as top world automaker

they very well might buy them. you gotta remember that mass production is a VERY capital oriented business, from machines, to labor, to factory planning and logistics to building a brand image... if they can increase their size by a huge margin and pay a fraction of the price that it'd cost to expand from the ground up like that; i think they'll do it.

and you're exactly right: the big three are suffering from reliability issues that are long since gone.

The other thing that people forget is that Toyota is a reletively young company. The benefits that GM has agreed to finance were agreed upon back when GM was in Toyota's position... masses of retiring employees were so far in the future they didnt even take them into account...

[BLLDOGG]

Re: toyota overtakes GM as top world automaker

Toyota isn't a reletively new company.

GM isn't having problems lately and what about recalls? every company has them. a part changes and doesn't work out so the company recalls them. off the top of my head, I know of no serious safety recalls.

[HokieBird]

Re: toyota overtakes GM as top world automaker

Toyota has had several massive recalls over the last few years and they are still dealing with engine sludge problems. People's engines have been dying after 30k miles because of engine sludge and Toyota just says it's their fault and sticks them with the bill.

All companies have recalls, but I think the engine sludge is a pretty major thing for a company that has such good "quality control" and makes such "reliable" cars. I mean I'm no mechanic, but I'm pretty sure an engine is an important part of a car.