http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=FT&Date=20071022&ID=7672411 General Motors outsold Toyota in the first nine months of the year, regaining its position as the world's largest carmaker in what has become a close race between the two rivals.
Toyota's performance was hit in the last quarter by a near 5 per cent drop in sales in the US, its largest market, where it has also recently suffered the defection of three key executives to competitors.
The Japanese carmaker, which sold more vehicles than GM in the first half of the year, on Monday reported global sales of 7.05m units through September, compared with GM's 7.06m.
Toyota said it still aimed to achieve annual group sales of 9.42m units, a target that would probably allow it to steal the title of the world's top carmaker from GM at year end, in spite of falling behind its US rival in the first nine months of the year.
GM, like Toyota, suffered from sliding US sales in the latest quarter, but is selling record numbers of vehicles in emerging markets such as Brazil and China.
The US carmaker said last week it was heading for its second-best annual sales performance. The company recorded peak sales of 9.55m vehicles in 1978 and sold 9.1m last year.
Executives at Toyota have sought to play down publicly the carmaker's expected replacement of GM in the industry's number one spot, while the US com-pany still describes itself as "the world's largest automaker".
Toyota's sales in the US dropped in each month of the last quarter, its longest run of declines in more than a decade. Shares in the Japanese group closed 2.1 per cent lower at Y6,120 on Monday in a weaker market.
Toyota attributed its summer slump to slower sales of its Corolla compact, which is at the end of its model lifespan, and at Scion, its US youth brand, which is also poised for a model makeover. The Corolla is one of Toyota's bestselling vehicles but sales dropped 29 per cent year on year in July and 13 per cent in August.
In addition to a slower US market, Toyota has been hit recently by the departure of two top executives from its Lexus luxury brand and of Jim Press, its long-serving head of North American operations, who last month left to join Chrysler.
The problems in the North American subprime mortgage market and the slower housing market, as well as higher oil prices, could affect consumer sentiment in the US, Toyota said.
Copyright 2007 Financial Times
