General Motors Corp.'s loss is Toyota's gain.
GM has been the world's largest automaker since 1931, but Toyota Motor Corp. looks to claim that crown as early as next year as it continues to grow in the softening U.S. auto market as well as in Asia, Europe and South America.
Toyota didn't introduce its first car in the U.S. -- a pokey four-door sedan called the Toyopet Crown -- until 1958. Four-and-a-half decades later, the Tokyo-based company has plants in 27 countries, sells cars in more than 170 nations and is ramping up production worldwide.
As GM tries to win customers with deep discounts, Toyota is raising prices on some models. Unlike GM, the Japanese automaker is winning market share by making quality vehicles that people want to buy.
The situation casts a blinding spotlight on the changes sweeping through the once-insular U.S. auto industry, which is now shaped largely by global competition.
"We are seeing a confrontation between the old and the new," said David Cole, director of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Bob Schnorbus, chief economist at automotive consultant J.D. Power & Associates, said Asian automakers had advantages over their U.S. counterparts.
"The American Big Three have been trying to fend off competition in this market with redundant workers and factories, and that has been a weight dragging them down," he said.
Import brands have overtaken American automakers in the economy car, sporty sedan and luxury car markets, and in the last decade have begun making significant inroads into the sport utility vehicle and pickup truck segments.
Toyota's Camry is the best-selling passenger car in the U.S., its Prius is the most popular gas-electric-powered hybrid, and for the last five years the company's Lexus has been the top-selling luxury brand.
"The American auto companies have been unwilling to address the clear encroachment by the Asian competitors on some of the top vehicle lines," said Catherine Madden, an auto industry analyst at economic consulting firm Global Insights in Lexington, Mass.
"Ford's Taurus used to be the leader in the family sedan category, but for years now the leader has been Toyota's Camry," she said.
A big distraction for American automakers has been the need to tackle soaring healthcare costs, huge pension liabilities and aging plants: One engine factory that GM plans to close will celebrate its 100th birthday this year.
