High placement on the global best-seller list may not have the same immediacy for vehicles as it does for books, but it brings bragging rights and probably influences sales to some degree.
The biggest global-sales story of 2010 may be the Hyundai Kia Automotive Group, which overtook Ford — despite the latter’s string of profitable quarters — for fourth place by a margin of more than 400,000 vehicles. In 2009, Ford topped the Korean automaker by about 40,000 vehicles.
Another switch found Nissan besting Honda and Peugeot, a year after both makers outsold Nissan. Similarly, Renault, which had trailed Suzuki, overtook it in 2010.
Volkswagen held onto its No. 3 spot with sales of 7.14 million, an improvement of more than one million over 2009. But VW would have been shut out of the top three if the Renault-Nissan sales figures — which, including Lada, totaled 7.28 million — had been reported as one. Combined, Fiat and Chrysler sales would have put their relatively new alliance at No. 9.
For many years, General Motors held the top spot, but Toyota surpassed the American automaker in 2008. In 2009, Toyota solidly trounced G.M., recording 7.2 million global sales to G.M.’s 6.4 million, but in 2010 G.M. made up ground as Toyota suffered from recalls and bad publicity. G.M., for its part, benefited from a government infusion of cash and an improving United States auto market. Toyota eked out its win, topping G.M. by about 30,000 units.
It should be noted that in the fuzzy-math world of global auto-sales figures, Toyota’s numbers include Daihatsu and Hino Motors, companies in which it holds a majority interest. Also, global sales are not tabulated by a uniform standard; some manufacturers might count total units shipped to dealers, while others might present total units sold at M.S.R.P.
So after tabulating sales figures reported by manufacturers, here is a complete, if unofficial,
top 10 ranking:
• Toyota: 8.42 million
• General Motors: 8.39 million
• Volkswagen AG: 7.14 million
• Hyundai Kia: 5.74 million
• Ford Motor: 5.31 million
• Nissan: 4.08 million
• Peugeot: 3.6 million
• Honda: 3.56 million
• Renault: 2.62 million
• Suzuki: 2.54 million
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