World's Largest Automaker: Dethroned GM Concedes, TTAC Was Right

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

At the sidelines of the Detroit Motor Show, GM conceded what we had said all along: Toyota is the world’s largest Automaker again, with GM in and – surprise – Volkswagen right behind GM.

After Toyota had announced, on a preliminary basis, that they had produced 9.92 million units in 2012, and sold 9.7 million, Volkswagen announced on Monday global deliveries of 9.1 million for the year. We expected GM to announce, as usual, when they surrender the report for their last quarter.


Reporters that had arrived in division-strength in Detroit bugged GM until it released sales of 9.29 million to the Associated Press.

For us, this is an anticlimactic event, we had predicted this outcome for most of the year, and we declared winner and podium positions last month. As remarked here ad nauseam, the number we want is production, not sales. We will update the numbers once we have them end of the month from Toyota and some time in February from GM. Not that this would change the ranking.

When Toyota became #1 in 2008, they warned internally not to celebrate this, because it was won due to the weakness of an opponent, not because of one’s own strength. Now, the #1 slot was won in a growing market, and through heroic efforts.,

Two items are remarkable about last year: The speed with which Toyota dug itself out of the hole caused by earthquake, tsunami, and Thai flood. And how narrow the distance between #3 Volkswagen and #2 GM has grown. Separated by a comfortable margin for most of the year, in the end GM finished only 229,000 units ahead of Volkswagen. Volkswagen’s global growth in 2012 (11.2 percent) is much stronger than that of GM (2.9 percent). If they keep that up, GM will land in rank 3 this year.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

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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  • 86SN2001 86SN2001 on Jan 17, 2013

    And if GM was number one, they would be lambasted by TTAC for chasing sales number rather than profits. I'm just waiting for the Ford love fest over the bland Fusion Energy...than has a shorter range than a 5,000 pound SUV with 420 torques and an over 7k tow rating.

    • Chocolatedeath Chocolatedeath on Jan 18, 2013

      What???? Dont remember Ford even being in the article or conversation till this point...

  • Lorenzo Lorenzo on Jan 17, 2013

    Well, compared to the disdain for GM management you'll find at Peter DeLorenzo's site, TTAC is downright even-handed. Peter unfailingly praises the GM "true believers" but slams the bean counters, management fiefdoms and especially "Lt. Dan" Ackerson, though he stopped calling him "Lt. Dan" after the Navy complained. TTAC may or may not like GM management, but the car reviews are fair, and the bean counter effect is noted. Is DeLorenzo biased? No. Is TTAC biased? No. Sometimes they actually ARE blithering idiots running the company down, and it's not biased to note it.

    • See 2 previous
    • Chocolatedeath Chocolatedeath on Jan 18, 2013

      @oldyak " I thought the editors had made it clear that ‘they’ were starting with a ‘clean slate’!! you didnt really believe that did you?

  • Larry P2 Larry P2 on Jan 18, 2013

    GM derangement syndrome.

  • Diewaldo Diewaldo on Jan 18, 2013

    I am tired of all this ... I don't really care which maker is number one, two or three. I know that big egos like Piech care about such nonsense, but I rather stick with BMW opinion on this one: Which one whould you rather be: The most profitable or the biggest carmaker? Size really means nothing, except that your ship is too big to make a quick turnaround (for examples just look at Chrysler and GMs performance after the crisis).

    • See 2 previous
    • Yeah_right Yeah_right on Jan 18, 2013

      Arguing "size doesn't matter" in a car guy website is like arguing that fuel efficiency is more important that horsepower. It may have the benefit of being true, but I'm not going to be the first grease monkey to stand up among my frients and tell them that putting the supercharger on the Chevelle is a bad idea.

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