Toyota’s quarterly sales across globe overtake GM’s for 1st time

[OhioChick]

Source: Detroit Free Press/AP

April 24, 2007

Toyota Motor Corp. sold more cars and trucks worldwide than General Motors Corp. in the first three months of 2007, marking the first time in the first quarter that Toyota has outsold GM.

Most auto analysts have predicted that Toyota would surpass GM this year as the world’s largest automaker. Toyota’s global sales for the January-March quarter rose 9% to a record 2.35 million, according to an Associated Press report from Tokyo. GM reported last week that its global sales rose 3% to 2.26 million vehicles.

Toyota has steadily gained on GM in past few years, aided by a shift in the U.S. market away from SUVs and toward more fuel-efficient options.

Toyota’s U.S. sales, led by the Camry and Corolla, rose more than 12% last year and sales are increasing at a double-digit rate again this year. In March, Toyota’s share of the U.S. market climbed to 16%, behind GM’s 22% and Ford Motor Co.’s 17%.


Read more: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070424/BUSINESS01/70424004/0/BUSINESS01

[trotsky]

1. GM's brilliant and wise executives will undoubtedly identify the problem.

Not enough Mega-SUVs in their product lines!

You know, there's an incredible opening for one of the big three "domestic" car makers to fill. All one of them has to do is step up to the plate and make an affordable, high-efficiency, reliable car. Too bad none of them can figure that out.

[MissMillie]

2. detroit does well with trucks and luxury cars

but not one U.S. auto maker can come up with a response to long life and reliability of Toyota, Honda, and Nissan in the economy car department.

[Paulie]

3. GM sure has tried

The Geo brand was re-branded Japanese cars (Toyota, Suzuki) and there is the current co-production plant with Toyota that produces the Toyota Matrix and the Pontiac Vibe. But the GM branded one does worse than the Toyota one on surveys, even though it's the same car out of the same factory.

I wonder if the real problem is the dealerships, and not so much GM. The dealers order the products to stock, and they would rather stock items with a much higher margin like an SUV than say a Camaro/Firebird which at the last year of production probably had $500 after holdback and incentives for the dealer. then there is the service issues which GM takes the heat for.

Though I also think GM could be a much better innovator as well. With all those years of experience with hybrid technology in the Electromotive division they sold off, they could have been first to market with technology.... but their "manglement" made a bad situation with the dealer network worse with very poor business decisions.

[Canuckistanian]

4. I heard they outsold Ford as well

At least that was the big news on our CBC radio this morning.

[iconoclastic cat]

5. And the '07 Yaris is going to kick the crap out of the US auto makers. nt

[Javaman]

6. I'm getting the popcorn out now...

:popcorn:

I'm waiting for the GM die-hards that spittle out the tired fact that: GM produces more 30 mpg cars than anyone else.

Sigh.

It's not about cars, it's about the image that they are putting out.

Toyota has already stated that all of their car will be hybrids by 2011. Do I hear GM saying anything like that? naaaaa.

GM had a fantastic car in the EV-1 and they destroyed it and their "reputation" along with it.

Now they come out with the *cough* *cough* volt, which by the way is still a fucking prototype. what the fuck? they have had the hybrid tech since 1967 yet they keep spewing out the tired phrase of, "we have to create the technology" blah blah blah.

there is an old expression, that GM has failed to understand, "you can't shit the shitter".

So when they finally come to the realization that the tech savvy public doesn't buy anymore of their lies, then perhaps they will improve their image. Until then GM cut the shit.

[Doremus]

7. I've had it with Detroit. For the last few decades I've bought American

to support American labor. I've put up with inferior pieces of garbage like Taurus and Caravan that seem to fall apart as soon as the measly 3 year warranty runs out.

No more.

I'm driving an '88 Honda Accord and when it dies (if it ever does) I'm sticking with Honda or Toyota.

Better mileage, better performance, higher resale, usually better warranties, better quality.

Detroit fatcats have stuck it to me for the last time.

[Up2Late]

8. I hate to tell the American Car fans here but, my Family hasn't bought an "American" car since 1983

All those Lemons Chevy produced and sold us between 1979-1983 lost this Chevy family.

Since 1984, every one of our cars have been Toyota.

Btw, I say "American" car because most GM cars, or at least the good small ones, are built on the German Opel Designed Platform (Opel's are very good cars), so I don't know if GM actually has any true "American" cars now. My Toyota, which is built in Kentucky, is much more "American" than most current GM cars.

[DetroitProle]

9. great insights

As a Detroit resident this is a very touchy subject for me. People around here are hurting, bad, and its directly linked to the free fall of the American auto industry.
Like 89% of Michiganders I drive an American car and always will.
But I think most of the posters here are spot on. Get with it, Big 3. I want an affordable hybrid or electric car! No more SUVs for Christ's sake! I just want a regular CAR!
But as for the posters who like to rail against the quality of the Big 3 cars, it's basically a load of crap, if you look at the figures and ratings. This isn't the 80s anymore. I wonder if these people also run around and say, "where's the beef?" and think its still funny.
And the smug self-reassurance of those who like to say, "MY CAR IS JUST AS AMERICAN AS YOURS". Yeah, the global economy has changed things. But it doesn't change the fact that foreign automakers like to build their plants in rural, southern, low-wage areas, and are good old fashioned union busters. Your car was made by a non-union worker who had to take that job. And the Big 3 employ hundreds of thousands more workers in the US than foreign automakers. Sure, its "good business" to pay employees as little as possible and smash unions, but those are not my democratic values.