TOKYO – It’s official: Toyota is once again the world’s top automaker.
Toyota Motor Corp. released its tally for global vehicle sales for last year Monday at a record 9.748 million vehicles — more than last month’s estimate of about 9.7 million vehicles.
It was already clear Toyota had dethroned General Motors Co. as the Detroit-based automaker fell short, selling 9.29 million vehicles.
GM had been the top-selling automaker for more than seven decades before losing the title to Toyota in 2008.
GM retook the sales crown in 2011, when Toyota’s production was hurt by the quake and tsunami in northeastern Japan.
The latest results show Toyota’s powerful comeback.
Global vehicle sales for the maker of the Camry sedan, Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury model surged nearly 23 per cent from the previous year. Overseas sales jumped 19 per cent, while sales in Japan, where the economy has been troubled, recovered a whopping 35 per cent.
Volkswagen AG of Germany, the world’s No. 3 automaker, sold a record 9.1 million vehicles around the world.
All three automakers play down the significance of the sales ranking and say they are focused on making attractive products.
“Rather than going after numbers, we hope to make fine products, one by one, to keep out customers satisfied. The numbers are just a result of our policy. And our policy will continue unchanged,” said Toyota spokeswoman Shino Yamada.
Still, the recovery for Toyota is impressive. Like other Japanese automakers, Toyota’s production was devastated by the March 2011 disasters, which disrupted supplies of crucial components. Flooding in Thailand, where Toyota has factories, also hurt car production.
Before that, it struggled against a crisis of massive recalls in the U.S. over defective floor mats, gas pedals and brakes, involving millions of vehicles, some recalled over and over, that hurt its reputation for quality.
Toyota officials have vowed to scrutinize quality, and have held back product development to minimize recalls.
From the middle of last year, it was hit by another kind of problem — a widespread boycott of Japanese products, including Toyota cars, in China over a territorial dispute.
But sales growth in other parts of the world, including the U.S. and Asian nations such as Indonesia and India, was more than enough to offset such losses.
Toyota is planning to sell 9.91 million vehicles globally in 2013, putting it back on track toward its earlier goal of 10 million vehicles — a target that it had made a special effort to play down after its recall crisis.
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Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at www.twitter.com/yurikageyama
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Maybe if the big three built more reliable cars, more people would consider buying domestic. Don’t blame people for buying foreign and ruining the economy. People tend to want to spend their money where the it yields the best value: and that’s foreign cars. Don’t get me wrong, there are some great domestic cars out there. But the general feeling toward domestic is lower entrance price, higher frequency of maintenance/cost down the road.
They’re not top when it comes to the new small over lap crash tests. The new Camry and Prius got a rating of “poor”. You’ll find it on You tube.
I have no problems with buying Toyota. They make cars in Ontario. Doesn’t matter if profits go back to Japan or USA, doesn’t stay in Canada.
People who think that American cars are somehow domestic are full of rubbish.
I totally agree – last time I checked, America is still a foreign country.
Totally agree with Matt
People think because we build a Toyota in Ontario they support Ontario jos but that’s not the big picture. Every foreign car equates to 1.5 assembly jobs vs. every domestic car equates to 7 jobs and most of these are the higher paying engineering jobs that go into developing a car. When you find yourself or your kids out of work after 4 years of engineering look in the driveway and see who is too blame. We can go on about gas mileage too, then take a look at the pictures from Friday of some of these compact cars squished on the 401 in the pile up and ask yourself if it was worth the fuel savings, injury, loss of life not to mention total write off vs. repair. Vehicles like Smart cars & Prius are cute and economical but stand little chance against a big SUV. As they say in Oshawa ” Cold, Hungry, Out of work, Eat your import”
In the end, I want value for my money. I’m not gonna spend 30k on an American car to last me 5-8 yrs. When I can spend 30k on a Japanese car that can last me 20 yrs. Not only that, but requires less maintenance, and better fuel efficiency (less gas).
In the end, by me buying japanese, in 20 yrs, I estimate I’ve saved 80k, vs if I bought the American car, (which would require 2-3 cars for the same lifespan) plus maintenance costs + extra fuel consumption.
So tell me, if you were to spend 30k (Japanese) or 110k (American), which would you choose?
I am supporting our Canadian economy, because the Toyota plant is in Cambridge. Which is a city in Ontario if you are not familiar with it. This plant employs thousands of Canadians. And they dont demand ridiculous wages and benefits, like the Greedy workers at Ford and GM, who also by the way build inferior cars. My toyota is 20 yrs old and still running, which is common for japanese cars. Not sure how many domestic (Ford, GM) car owners can claim the same.
My 1991 Jimmy still runs fine, it’s not rusted out, everything works including A/C, locks, windows, etc with no codes and it has never failed a clean air. I am on my 10th set of brakes. I bet not many Toyota owners can claim their car’s are ticking fine at 22.
Good job Canada for buying so much foreign cars. Who cares that the profits go back to Japan and people (and possibly you) may lose your jobs because you are not supporting your economy. People need to get a brain and realize that you live and work in the Toronto area, which has Ford and GM plants (both based in North America).