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After Driving Past GM In 2012, Toyota Poised To Boost Sales Further In 2013

Vehicles in the lot of a Northbrook, Ill., Toyota dealer last October.
Scott Olson
/
Getty Images
Vehicles in the lot of a Northbrook, Ill., Toyota dealer last October.

After seeing its sales take a hit in 2011 because production was hurt by the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan early that year, Toyota bounced back in 2012 to retake the No. 1 spot as the world's top automaker.

The company sold 9.75 million vehicles, to No. 2 General Motors' 9.3 million. Volkswagen was No. 3, with 9.1 million vehicles sold.

Among the reasons Toyota is back atop the sales statistics: Strong demand "for its Prius family of hybrid cars, sedans like the Camry and SUVs such as the Lexus RX 350," MarketWatch writes.

Now, thanks to a weaker yen that is helping make its products less expensive in the key U.S. market, Toyota is forecasting another gain in 2013 — to sales of 9.9 million. BloombergBusinessweek says some of Toyota's good fortune will come at the expense of South Korea's automakers, who are getting hurt by a rising South Korean won that makes their vehicles relatively more expensive.

USA Today notes that "GM had been the top-selling automaker for more than seven decades before losing the title to Toyota in 2008."

CNNMoney adds one footnote to the Toyota-GM rivalry:

"Toyota's sales totals were also helped by the fact that it made more than 600,000 heavy-duty trucks and buses during the year, a segment GM essentially pulled out of in 2009."

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Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.
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