AOL Money & Finance

Toyota topples GM: what is its secret?

It was a matter of time before Toyota Motor Corporation (ADR) (NYSE: TM) overtook General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) as the largest seller of worldwide automobiles. In Q1 of this year, that finally happened, as Toyota sold 2.35 million vehicles in the quarter to GM's 2.26 million. What is so special about Toyota, and why is the automaker selling so many vehicles these days?

In the U.S. marketplace, Toyota doesn't have the overhead costs of GM (pension, health care and other labor costs), so its vehicles can be priced more attractively. Toyota's styling in its passenger car division is widely regarded as miles ahead of the boring and staid GM designs (save Pontiac, which gets it). Combine that with the reputation (however truthful or not) that Toyota vehicles are infinitely more reliable than GM's units and, well, there you go.

Toyota's marketing focus on miles per gallon and its brilliant marketing on alternative-powered and hybrid cars (and SUVs) has won it converts from the green car buyer as well. GM has a rather large E85 effort underway for this same crowd, but the marketing is not there and the campaign lacks panache.

Add all this up together and it's no wonder Toyota finally surpassed GM this past quarter. The question is: can the Japanese automaker keep it up this entire year? GM's back in the hunt and has fixed quite a few things recently. Ford is still floundering a bit but massive changes are happening there as well.
Get the latest on cars and trucks
from GM and all brands at AOL Autos.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA-154.4810,309.92
NASDAQ-37.612,138.44
S&P 500-19.141,091.49

Last updated: November 27, 2009: 07:29 PM

BloggingStocks Exclusives

Hot Stocks

Learn More About GM Cars

General Motors Brands:
Find Your Next Car

AOL Autos New Cars and Used Cars

DailyFinance Headlines

Latest from BloggingBuyouts

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

BioHealth Investor Headlines

WalletPop Headlines

My Portfolios

Track your stocks here!

Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

BloggingStocks Partners

More from AOL Money & Finance

WalletPop Headlines