For 76 years, General Motors stood atop the automotive world without any real competition – at least in terms of sales – from any other of the world’s other automakers. But that lead has eroded over the past few years – largely due to some questionable product offerings and less-than-top-notch quality – and will likely disappear at the end of 2008.
GM already trailed Toyota for global sales through the first half of 2008, and that deficit has only grown since the end of the second quarter. According to The Detroit News, Toyota now has a 351,000 unit sales lead of GM.
Through the first nine months of the year, GM has sold 6.7 million vehicles globally, compared to Toyota ’s sales of 7.051 million units.
61 percent of GM’s third quarter sales came from markets outside of the U.S., which is an improvement over last year’s 56 percent mark, but still down from last quarter’s 65 percent. Overall, GM’s third quarter sales were down 11.4 percent to 2.1 million vehicles.
