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General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) lost its crown as the world's largest automaker to Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) after 77 years. This is hardly a surprise.As Bloomberg News notes, "GM's 2008 sales fell more than 11 percent to 8.35 million vehicles, according to a company statement today. Toyota posted a 4 percent drop to 8.92 million."
It's not worth crying about 600,000 or so vehicles. The U.S. auto industry has much bigger problems. Consumer spending is still moribund. Credit markets are still frozen so much that otherwise qualified buyers are having difficulty getting their purchases financed.
GM, for its part, continues to hang on by its fingernails. Last month, it received $4 billion in funding from the TARP which is supposed to hold the automaker over through March. It will need tens of billions more. Pimco has quit a bondholders committee set up to negotiate a debt-for-equity deal for GMAC, according to Bloomberg.
There were some bright spots in an otherwise gloomy release. Sales of Chevrolet showed strength, gaining 14% in Asia Pacific. Several new Chevrolet product launches are set for 2009 including the Cruze, Malibu, Traverse and Camaro.
Meanwhile, Toyota has plenty of problems of its own. The company recently named the grandson of the company's founder as CEO after the company reported its first drop in sales in annual sales in 10 years.
The auto industry will continue to suck wind this year with sales declining 5 percent to below 12.5 million vehicles, according to Edmunds.com.
You have to wonder whether Toyota won a booby prize.
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