Although Toyota still ranks third in U.S. sales, its share of the American market has jumped to 15.6% from 7.3% since 1995. GM's domestic market share has fallen from almost 33% to 23% during that period.
Perhaps recalling the resentment spawned during the 1980s by the surge in Japanese imports, recent Toyota ad campaigns have focused on the automaker's growing U.S. manufacturing presence.
The company may build as many as five new North American assembly plants by 2016 and broke ground just last week on a $1.3-billion factory in Mississippi that will produce 150,000 Highlander SUVs annually. That would bring its total in North America to 13 plants and add 10,000 jobs to its current total of about 40,000 in the region.
Even so, almost half of the 2.5 million vehicles Toyota sold in the U.S. last year were imported from overseas factories.
"There's always talk of a potential backlash, but I haven't seen any signs of it at all," said Jesse Toprak, senior analyst with Edmunds.com. "There will always be certain pockets in the U.S. that are less likely to buy a Japanese import. But they generate so much volume in the rest of the country that it's not a major concern."
In Los Angeles, the leading market for Toyota's gas-sipping hybrid cars, the automaker accounted for 28% of all new-vehicle sales last year, up from 21% in 2002, according to market research firm R.L. Polk & Co. GM's market share in L.A. has slipped below 14%.
On Tuesday afternoon, Hector Rodriguez, 51, was checking out a new Prius at Miller Toyota in Culver City. A self-proclaimed GM fan who recently bought his daughter a 2001 Yukon, Rodriguez was nonetheless shopping for relief from high gas prices.
"American cars take \o7mucho\f7 gasoline. It's too much," he said.
Toyota's growth in North America comes as payrolls at the Detroit Three shrink. The U.S. automakers are saddled with billions more in healthcare costs for workers and retirees than their Asian rivals.
Toyota's ascendance comes even as GM, which had reigned atop the global auto pyramid since snatching the crown from Henry Ford in 1931, appears to be pulling back from the financial brink.
A year ago, the U.S. corporate icon was in such sad shape that investor Kirk Kerkorian was trying to force it into an alliance with auto companies from Japan and France.
