Who's on Second - No Who is Third - Toyota or Ford?

DETROIT February 13, 2004; John Porretto writing for the AP reported that Toyota Motor Corp. isn't quite ready to hail itself as the world's second-largest automaker, and for good reason.

A few weeks after it appeared Toyota had surpassed Ford Motor Co. as the No. 2 global automaker in terms of sales, the Japanese company says the designation depends on how sales are calculated.

What makes the matter difficult to settle is that carmakers in Japan typically count sales differently than their U.S. counterparts -- the nuts and bolts of which both sides said was too complicated to explain.

Toyota last month reported global sales of 6.78 million vehicles for 2003, more than Ford's total of 6.72 million, which would put the Japanese automaker ahead of Ford and behind only General Motors Corp. in worldwide volume.

This past week, however, Toyota reported another worldwide sales number, 6.49 million, that spokesman Dan Sieger said represents a fairer comparison to Ford's 2003 number. Sieger said the second figure is based on U.S.-based accounting methods.

So, who's No. 2?

"I'm totally confused by the numbers that are floating around," George Pipas, Ford's top sales analyst, said Friday, adding that the ranking was not nearly as important to the company as increasing sales and profitability.

Ford last month reported a profit of nearly half a billion dollars for 2003 after two years in which it lost a combined $6.4 billion. But its global sales slipped 3.6 percent last year.

Meanwhile, Toyota's profits and sales continue to surge.

Last week Toyota reported a 60 percent increase in profit in the most recent quarter, despite a surging yen that makes overseas sales less valuable when converted into yen and a domestic market that's been weighed down by uncertainties about the economy and employment.

The automaker said last week its North American retail vehicle sales topped 2 million for the first time in 2003 and raised its vehicle sales forecast for the current fiscal year.

Yet Toyota officials have made a point of downplaying a change in global rankings.

"We have so much more to learn," Toyota President Fujio Cho told reporters recently. "If this were a marathon, we're so far behind we still can't see Ford's back."