It's one more slap in the face of GM, which slid to No. 2 amid huge financial losses last year. But with the world economy in recession and car sales anemic, an added prestige Toyota derives from being No. 1 is muted.
A FIRST: Toyota surpasses GM in salesNEW YORK - Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. sold more cars and trucks last year than General Motors Corp., stripping the Detroit automaker of the No. 1 global sales crown for the first time in 78 years.
GM said Wednesday it sold 8,355,947 cars and trucks around the world in 2008, falling about 616,000 vehicles short of the 8.972 million Toyota announced Tuesday.
GM, which posted an 11 percent drop in global sales for the year, blamed the decline on the steep drop in vehicle demand in its key North American and European markets.
North American sales dropped 21 percent for the year. GM Europe sales fell 6.5 percent, including a 21 percent plunge in the fourth quarter.
Toyota's sales fell 4 percent for the year, marking that automaker's first global sales decline in 10 years.
Read the whole story.
Leave a comment