Yesterday General Motors announced its worldwide sales figures for 2008, and in doing so made it official that the U.S. automaker is no longer the highest volume seller in the world. That title now belongs to Toyota.
The two companies have traded places several times over the past two years on who has sold more cars in a month or in a quarter but this is the first time Toyota has taken the lead for an entire fiscal year.
Toyota's victory is really a silver lining that has a large dark cloud attached to it, as the title comes to Toyota during difficult times. In fact, both Toyota and General Motors posted huge decreases in volume in 2008, it's just that GM's decline was more significant.
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Toyota Officially World's Largest Automaker on AutoGuide.com