Toyota defeated by GM

General Motors outsold Toyota in the first nine months of the year, regaining its position as the world's largest car maker in what has become a close race between the two rivals.

Toyota's performance was hit in the last quarter by a near 5 per cent drop in sales in the US, where it has also recently suffered the defection of three key executives to competitors.

The Japanese car maker, which sold more vehicles than GM in the first half of the year, yesterday reported global sales of 7.05 million units through to September, compared with GM's 7.06 million.

Toyota said it still aimed to achieve annual group sales of 9.42 million units, a target that would probably allow it to steal the title of the world's top car maker from GM at year end, despite falling behind its US rival in the first nine months of the year.

GM, like Toyota, suffered from sliding US sales in the latest quarter, but is selling record numbers of vehicles in emerging markets such as Brazil and China.

The US car maker said last week that it was heading for its second-best annual sales performance. The company recorded peak sales of 9.55 million vehicles in 1978 and sold 9.1 million last year.

Executives at Toyota have sought to play down publicly the car maker's expected replacement of GM in the industry's number one spot, while the American company still describes itself as 'the world's largest auto maker.'

Toyota's sales in the US dropped in each month of the last quarter, its longest run of declines in more than a decade.

Shares in the Japanese group closed 2.1 per cent lower at Y6120 ($60) in a weaker market.

Toyota attributed its summer slump to slower sales of its Corolla compact, which is at the end of its model lifespan, and of Scion, its US youth brand, which is also poised for a model makeover. The Corolla is one of Toyota's best-selling vehicles but sales dropped 29 per cent year on year in July and 13 per cent in August.

In addition to a slower US market, Toyota has also been hit recently by the departure of two top executives from its Lexus luxury brand and of Jim Press, its long-serving head of North American operations, who last month left to join Chrysler.