Toyota Surpassed GM as Top Carmaker in 2006

This news is based on 2006, but released today and isn't really unexpected. Well...I guess how it was achieved was according to the article below. While looking at articles on California mortgage refinance I saw this and decided to post it as it is sort of an interesting development in the automaker industry.

Reuters reported that the milestone that the global auto industry has been holding its collective breath for -- Toyota Motor Corp.'s unseating General Motors Corp. as the world's biggest carmaker -- came last year instead of in 2007 as many had expected, according to a leading industry journal.

Detroit-based weekly Automotive News, whose data centre publishes a widely quoted ranking of the world's automakers around this time every year, said Japan's top carmaker outsold GM by about 128,000 units last year based on a technicality that excludes sales of vehicles at minority-held subsidiaries.

"A little-known Chinese microvan played a role in Toyota's victory," the magazine, published by Crain Communications, said on its website. link