GM falls behind Toyota in annual global sales

by JeffHuang | January 21, 2009 at 10:29 am

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Oh how the mighty have fallen - Toyota has overtook GM as the No. 1 global sales leader in 2008 with a 11 percent drop in global sales. To make matters worst, GM is continuing to decline as their shares fell to $3.28 while Toyota's U.S. shares rose to $66.28.
Just last month, GM received $13.4 billion from federal government and has been shutting down plants and laying off workers.

Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. sold more cars and trucks last year than General Motors Corp., stripping the Detroit automaker of the No. 1 global sales crown for the first time in 78 years.

GM said Wednesday it sold 8,355,947 cars and trucks around the world in 2008, falling about 616,000 vehicles short of the 8.972 million Toyota announced Tuesday.

GM, which posted an 11 percent drop in global sales for the year, blamed the decline on the steep drop in vehicle demand in its key North American and European markets.

This is not all that surprising as GM had a larger than expected 3rd quarter loss which forced the CEOs to work for a $1 salary to present cut costing methods to congress.