The world needs to have its pulse checked.

^ thank you.

I have nothing against Toy or Honda personally, they make good cars and i know lots of folks love them. BUT they are bland, boring, underpowered, heartless vehicles imho.

Give me a Chevy, Dodge, VW, Ford, Miata, Subaru, Caddy, BMW or something with some soul!!

bradleygt, soul cost extra. Most of consumers refused to pay for it. Acura was manufacturing very cool NSX, until there were no takers, Honda S2000 was a great little roadster competing directly with Boxster, Supra was a great car and even Celica was decent. However, it was Mr. & Mrs. Consumer who put kabash to those aspirations.
BMW does it only due its high cost and Mr. & Mrs. don’t intent to pay so much for cars without propeller. The rest of industry is on life support. If we (enthusiasts) want to drive enthusiastic cars we can shell out for quirky performance machines. But I doubt, that there are enough people to support those endeavors during recession.

Great, Toyota can become #1 by shrinking a little less than GM. This may not last. Toyota’s ascension to #1 is mostly based on growth in the US market. The US market is no longer growing and Toyota’s sales here have hit a wall. Going forward the US market is going to be a smaller piece of the global pie and GM is ahead of Toyota in China which has far more growth potential than the US market. Those who think TOyota is destined to grow and expand marketshare every year may be disappointed. Now that gas is cheap and the economy is affecting all automakers I dont see Toyota gaining much share in the US in 2009.

We drivers (those of us that like cars with soul) are a dying breed. And this is Evidence Exhibit A.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but haven’t they been the world’s largest automaker for a couple of years now?

nope. GM has been for like 70+ years. Toy just recently overtook Ford for #2.

And btw, I love LLN, but pleas, GIVE US some sources or stats to back up this ‘claim’ of how Toyota is going to be #1…what sales data, what #’s are they projected to win by, etc.

otherwise I may switch to a career in journalism if all i need for a story is the ability to make a prediction:

” Despite Slumoing economy, Aston Martin will overtake all world governments with violent coups!”

how does that camry in the picture breathe?

Soul is overrated and highly subjective… I have a VR6 Jetta which is loaded with both soul and character and is a blast to drive. It is also an unreliable piece of junk. I can’t see how GM, Ford, etc products have any more soul than a Toyota. Does a Cobalt have more than a Corolla?

The market has spoken, and Americans are willing to cast aside “soul” in thier vehicles for a well built product from a manufacturer that will stand behind what they sell.

Any Cinderella team and can win one championship, But only the Great Champions that have stand the test of time will be forever be known as the Champ…

Enjoy It Toyota, the clock is ticking, remember what happens at midnight…..

“The market has spoken, and Americans are willing to cast aside “soul” in thier vehicles for a well built product from a manufacturer that will stand behind what they sell.”

GM sells more vehicles than Toyota in the US. How can you be so stupid? This is about GLOBAL sales. Gm doesnt even sell much of anything in Japan. Gm is ahead of Toyota in the 3 largest markets- US, Europe and China. This lead for Toyota is going to be very slim.

This has been in the offing for some time.

This is disappointing news, though not unexpected.

But I agree with sj79: assuming GM (or anyone) can make it though this economic free-fall, GM is in a better position to maximize future sales. And for what its worth, I think GM’s newest products are a lot more interesting than the “soul-less” appliances Toyota produces. Total vanilla. I think this is already an indication of how hard it will be for them to stay on top, as the temptation is to be complacent, take little risk (design), and let quality slip – all currently plaguing Toyota.

SJ79: Actually, projections show that Toyota will exceed GM sales in China for 2008. http://www.gasgoo.com/auto-news/1008112/Toyota-tops-GM-in-China-Jan-Sept-car-sales.html

kaizen,

I read that article and according to the numbers GM is ahead of Toyota in china. The article was about Toyota overtaking GM globally. It said GM has sold 750k vehicles in china this year compared to 477k or so for Toyota. It said Toyota has sold more cars and SUVs than GM has sold cars but not that Toyota outpaced GM overall in China. VW is #1 and GM is #2 in China.

“Total vanilla. I think this is already an indication of how hard it will be for them to stay on top, as the temptation is to be complacent, take little risk (design), and let quality slip – all currently plaguing Toyota.”

Toyota is becoming an old man’s brand. Its that simple. The same thing that happened to GM and Ford is happening to Toyota slowly. The cars that people watched their parents drive are not seen as cool by their kids. That’s just the way things work. Now people in their 20s and 30s see Toyotas as the cars their parents drive (same for Lexus) and thus they are gravitating towards Hondas, Minis, Mazdas and European cars. Not enough of those people are moving towards American cars but I think that could change. Many folks in the 25-35 age range really dont have bad experiences with domestic cars to draw from. They dont like or consider domestics because they were raised in import only families and their parents always taught them the best cars are from Japan.

“http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081229/AUTO01/812290330/1148

Why does it bother guys so much that Toyota is the world largest automaker?? Toyota is larger and way better that any American automaker!

yarddog82abn, your point is moot because GM has simply been around longer than Toyota. The automobile was invented in the United States, long before Japan was even a world power. Your biased hatred for all things Japanese is obvious.