Toyota Surpassed GM in First Quarter Sales
SANTA MONICA, Calif.--Edmunds.com:
WHAT: According to quarterly sales results announced today, Toyota became the world’s number one car company for sales for the first three months of this year. Toyota surpassed General Motors, the world leader for 76 years, for the first time.
“While the figures announced today represent only quarterly sales results, they may well foreshadow the inevitable: Toyota will become number one as early as this year. Toyota has claimed that surpassing GM is not its goal, Toyota president Katsuaki Watanabe told reporters in December. But don’t believe for a second Toyota’s goal -- or Watanabe’s goal -- isn’t to surpass GM. Toyota desperately wants to be number one. Watanabe -- described as sharp, very aggressive and even a bit arrogant -- wants Toyota to be number one. The automaker just worries about what goes along with being number one,” said Michelle Krebs, Senior Editor of Edmunds’ AutoObserver.com.
According to Edmunds.com Senior Analyst Jesse Toprak, “This was not an unexpected turn of events, but it happened a bit earlier than forecasted because of GM’s decision to cut fleet sales. GM wasn’t making much money on those cars anyway, so the financial picture isn’t dramatically different than before. All GM sacrificed in this decision was ego, since the executives knew Toyota would become number one sooner when much of GM’s fleet sales were removed from the count.”
Here is some data that reflects the automakers’ positions in the marketplace over recent years. (Terms are defined below.)
| United States Market Share | True Cost of Incentives | Days To Turn | Discount % From MSRP | |||||||||||||
| Year | GM | Toyota | GM | Toyota | GM | Toyota | GM | Toyota | ||||||||
| 2002 | 28.6% | 10.1% | $2,723 | $376 | 58 | 29 | -17.5% | -7.8% | ||||||||
| 2003 | 28.3% | 11.1% | $3,595 | $722 | 74 | 39 | -20.7% | -9.6% | ||||||||
| 2004 | 27.5% | 12.3% | $3,872 | $601 | 82 | 35 | -20.8% | -7.8% | ||||||||
| 2005 | 26.4% | 13.4% | $3,603 | $973 | 75 | 31 | -19.3% | -8.2% | ||||||||
| 2006 | 24.6% | 15.5% | $2,987 | $1,061 | 77 | 29 | -14.8% | -7.9% | ||||||||
| 2007 | 23.3% | 15.7% | $2,702 | $999 | 83 | 35 | -13.5% | -6.9% | ||||||||
Definition of Terms:
Edmunds.com's monthly True Cost of Incentives (TCI) report takes into account all of the manufacturers' various United States incentives programs, including subvented interest rates and lease programs as well as cash rebates to consumers and dealers. To ensure the greatest possible accuracy, Edmunds.com bases its calculations on sales volume, including the mix of vehicle makes and models for each month, as well as on the proportion of vehicles for which each type of incentive was used. TCI data (and other Edmunds.com data products) can be viewed industrywide, import vs. domestic, by country of origin, by make, by model and by segment.
"Days to turn" measures how many days on average it took to sell vehicles after they arrived at dealerships.
"Discount percentage from MSRP" reflects the difference between MSRP and net price as a percentage of MSRP.
To read and quote from the Edmunds’ AutoObserver.com story, “Toyota Tops General Motors,” please visit http://www.autoobserver.com/2007/04/toyota_tops_gen.html#more.
WHO: Edmunds.com has a number of experts that are available to discuss this topic, including:
- Edmunds’ AutoObserver.com Senior Editor Michelle Krebs (Detroit)
- Edmunds.com Senior Analyst Jesse Toprak (Los Angeles)
- Edmunds’ AutoObserver.com Analyst Alex Rosten (Los Angeles)
OTHER: Visit www.carspace.com/autoobserver to subscribe to the site’s bi-weekly newsletter.