04.26.07 5:00 AM CDT
• Here at Playboy
• David Pfister
This week Toyota overtook GM in total sales for the quarter to outsell top dog GM, as presciently forecast by Arthur Kretchmer in his January 2006 investigation “Car Wars.” The Playboy alum and go-to car guy said it would happen by 2010. Well he was right, though we admit he could have been a tighter with the over/under. “No conversation about the state of the car business goes on for long without focusing on Toyota and GM. Both companies want to discourage the idea that we are witnessing a clash of titans… . GM is number one by definition; it manufactures and sells more vehicles than anyone else. But total vehicle sales are a deceptive measure. By every criterion you’d apply to your own business, Toyota is number one.”
Some may argue that Toyota has out-sold GM for only this quarter, but as GM contracts and Toyota expands, the trend, as Kretchmer foresaw, will almost surely continue.
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