Who's On Third? Toyota? Volkswagen? GM?
Now that GM has released its Q1 data, let’s have a look at the race for the top spot, world’s largest auto maker. We are counting global deliveries only, not production. Even with “deliveries” there is room for interpretation. Deliveries to customers? Or cars dumped on dealer lots? We’ll never know. All we know is:
We can say with confidence that based on published first quarter 2010 global numbers, Volkswagen Group took 3rd with 1.73m units delivered. GM Group is in 2nd place with 1.99m units sold. Toyota Group holds the top spot with 2.31m units sold.
Of course, there is a lot of creative bookkeeping in these numbers, especially in China. GM’s footnote says: “Ownership of 34% in SGMW and 50% in FAW-GM, under the joint venture agreements, allows for significant rights as a member as well as the contractual right to report SGMW and FAW-GM production volume in China.” Volkswagen and Toyota do the same, so we leave it to them to duke it out.
Ford only reports production numbers, but with 1.32m units produced worldwide in Q1, they are not a factor in the race for the top spot.
The race between the top three will remain interesting throughout the year. The race will be decided in China. With GM outperforming the Chinese market, and with Volkswagen under-performing, true red, white, and blue supporters of GM will have to do something very alien to most of them: Pray for a strong Chinese market.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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"I wouldn't buy a stinking dog from that company!" If Toyota sold stinking dogs, they'd probably be more reliable than Volkswagen and GM's stinking dogs. I'll be here all week!
Mikey and friends dislike Asian makers in general because they are non Union, if they where Unionized, there would be no compliant after all Brothers and Sisters count no matter what!
It's almost amusing how people are ready to jump at each others throats over car choices. Assuming this is a free country, and that foreign car makers have been allowed to sell here, people are free to buy whatever they want. When the government allowed Toyota to sell cars here they didn't warn them to not be number one. Besides when someone spends their own money buying a car, its entirely upto them if they want to buy unreliable cars or reliable ones. So either we accept that all the people who buy Japanese cars again and again are really stupid, or just let them make their choice and not rant about it.
I had no idea Toyota has pulled that far ahead. Maybe the negative press won't hurt Toyota that much since they are the new GM.