All About Japan Autos

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that 2010 was a bad year for Toyota. High-profile recalls led to a drop in sales in the U.S., which is the company’s biggest market.

“Toyota Motor Corp. barely managed to retain its position as the world’s biggest car maker in 2010 after getting whacked by massive recalls and as General Motors Co. closed the gap in the global sales race, putting the Japanese company in danger of losing the top spot in 2011,” writes the Wall Street Journal (subscription may be required).

In 2010, Toyota managed to outsell GM globally by just 28,000 vehicles.

Reuters reports, “GM, which lost the crown in 2008 for the first time in nearly eight decades, said its sales climbed 12.2 percent to 8.390 million vehicles last year, with deliveries in China and the United States, the top two markets, both exceeding 2 million.”

It’s not all bad news for Toyota, which temporarily halted sales of some of its most popular cars and SUVs a year ago today. “Market researchers say the company is slowly regaining some of its luster. Loyal customers began coming back several months ago, and the brand is winning more conquest battles on the sales floor,” says Automotive News. “In many consumer-attitude surveys, Toyota last year plunged from No. 1 to below industry averages. It has clawed its way back up.”

Plus, Volkswagen has not been shy about saying it wants to unseat Toyota as the world’s largest carmaker, and has made changes to its product line, like dropping the price (and features) of the Volkswagen Jetta, to catch up. But, Toyota may not have to worry about VW for a while. The Wall Street Journal writes, “Toyota is still well ahead of Europe’s biggest car maker, Volkswagen AG, which has declared it wants to unseat Toyota as world’s largest car maker. Volkswagen said earlier this month its sales rose by about 14% to 7.14 million vehicles.” That’s in contrast to the 8.418 million Toyota sold in 2010.

For consumers, having three companies struggling to be the world’s top automaker is a good thing. Car makers rely on sales to be the top dog, which means that they’ll often offer discounts and incentives to get and stay on top. We’ve already seen a price drop with the Jetta, while Toyota and GM have both been offering strong incentives in 2010.Many of those incentives have continued into 2011. Shop smart, and make the sales race work for you.

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