Toyota revealed as world's biggest automaker thanks to GM's creative math
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Toyota revealed as world's biggest automaker thanks to GM's creative math
January24
The title of world's biggest automaker has been up in the air for the past month, with General Motors saying it sold 9,369,524 vehicles globally in 2007 and Toyota claiming a not-so-precise 9.366 million units sold worldwide. But apparently, GM did some creative math to come up with its final figure.
Automotive News has discovered that GM included the sales of 516,435 Wuling brand vehicles in its final tally. While GM does own 34% of the Chinese automaker, it's industry practice to only include the sales of companies that are majority-owned subsidiaries in an automaker's global total — the same stipulation that prevents Ford from claiming Mazda's sales (Ford only owns a 33.4% stake in the Japanese automaker).
Subtracting Wuling's sales from GM's 2007 total leaves the Detroit automaker with only 8,885,599 sales, well short of Toyota's estimated 9.366 million vehicle sales in 2007. Toyota won't announce its official global sales for 2007 until sometime next month, but it looks as though GM will lose its title of world's biggest automaker for the first time in 76 years.
The title of world's biggest automaker has been up in the air for the past month, with General Motors saying it sold 9,369,524 vehicles globally in 2007 and Toyota claiming a not-so-precise 9.366 million units sold worldwide. But apparently, GM did some creative math to come up with its final figure.
Automotive News has discovered that GM included the sales of 516,435 Wuling brand vehicles in its final tally. While GM does own 34% of the Chinese automaker, it's industry practice to only include the sales of companies that are majority-owned subsidiaries in an automaker's global total — the same stipulation that prevents Ford from claiming Mazda's sales (Ford only owns a 33.4% stake in the Japanese automaker).
Subtracting Wuling's sales from GM's 2007 total leaves the Detroit automaker with only 8,885,599 sales, well short of Toyota's estimated 9.366 million vehicle sales in 2007. Toyota won't announce its official global sales for 2007 until sometime next month, but it looks as though GM will lose its title of world's biggest automaker for the first time in 76 years.
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Geez, it's the Cadillac - Lincoln thing all over again 
If GM included Wuling in 2007, I would doubt this is the first year ... so would we have to go back however-many years and re-adjust their totals? If so, they might have lost the crown 2 or 3 years ago.
If GM included Wuling in 2007, I would doubt this is the first year ... so would we have to go back however-many years and re-adjust their totals? If so, they might have lost the crown 2 or 3 years ago.
Last edited by R377; Jan 25, 2008 at 04:53 AM.
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Gee, for two companies that both claim not to care about being "the biggest", they both seem to put a lot of effort into playing games with numbers
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Being number one in worldwide sales is good for stock values, and in GM's case it is also good for investor confidence. I'm not trying to condone the practice of blurring the numbers, but I can understand why they did it.
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Also, this means absolutely buzzkit except for the stocks as mentioned above.
What I'd like to see GM have is World's Most Profitable Major Automanufacturer.
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I probably should go look it up before posting but if memory serves, I belive Mr. Lutz, when it looked like Toyota might actually overtake them in 2007, was quoted as saying to the effect that being "no. 1" was not really that big of a deal...
If it wsn't such a big deal, I can't help but wonder who it was at GM that decided to include sales of vehicles in GM's total that would normally never be included and they just happen to keep GM in the no. 1 spot.
I guess it was important to someone!
How it the world did they think it would go unnoticed???
If it wsn't such a big deal, I can't help but wonder who it was at GM that decided to include sales of vehicles in GM's total that would normally never be included and they just happen to keep GM in the no. 1 spot.
I guess it was important to someone!
How it the world did they think it would go unnoticed???
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Hmm some fuzzy Bush math huh! 
Well that never hurt nobody...
I would imagine as earleir posted Wall Street feels GM's no. 1 spot is worth it. Who is to say what the reason was or if actually has any tread to it yet. If GM has used sales of that Chinese brand before w/o issue why is it now.
We all knew it was a matter of time before Toyota got to no. 1. There is no way to stay ahead of a corp. that has dedicated gains in sales every year and GM doesn't. GM has been making changes and trying to equal the playing field with Toyota for some time and if it ever gets truly even (impossible) then maybe the sales title will be up for grabs. Until then GM needs to focus on getting healthy finacially and planning for the long term, profits are also nice.
Well that never hurt nobody...I would imagine as earleir posted Wall Street feels GM's no. 1 spot is worth it. Who is to say what the reason was or if actually has any tread to it yet. If GM has used sales of that Chinese brand before w/o issue why is it now.
We all knew it was a matter of time before Toyota got to no. 1. There is no way to stay ahead of a corp. that has dedicated gains in sales every year and GM doesn't. GM has been making changes and trying to equal the playing field with Toyota for some time and if it ever gets truly even (impossible) then maybe the sales title will be up for grabs. Until then GM needs to focus on getting healthy finacially and planning for the long term, profits are also nice.
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Hmm some fuzzy Bush math huh! Well that never hurt nobody...
I would imagine as earleir posted Wall Street feels GM's no. 1 spot is worth it. Who is to say what the reason was or if actually has any tread to it yet. If GM has used sales of that Chinese brand before w/o issue why is it now.
We all knew it was a matter of time before Toyota got to no. 1. There is no way to stay ahead of a corp. that has dedicated gains in sales every year and GM doesn't. GM has been making changes and trying to equal the playing field with Toyota for some time and if it ever gets truly even (impossible) then maybe the sales title will be up for grabs. Until then GM needs to focus on getting healthy finacially and planning for the long term, profits are also nice.
Well that never hurt nobody...I would imagine as earleir posted Wall Street feels GM's no. 1 spot is worth it. Who is to say what the reason was or if actually has any tread to it yet. If GM has used sales of that Chinese brand before w/o issue why is it now.
We all knew it was a matter of time before Toyota got to no. 1. There is no way to stay ahead of a corp. that has dedicated gains in sales every year and GM doesn't. GM has been making changes and trying to equal the playing field with Toyota for some time and if it ever gets truly even (impossible) then maybe the sales title will be up for grabs. Until then GM needs to focus on getting healthy finacially and planning for the long term, profits are also nice.
The chance of this being a casual mistake is pretty nill; what is much more likely is that somebody either did it on purpose or somebody is incredibly stupid.
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OK. Another twist to AN's claims...
http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=60037
GM has said it owns a majority of legally available shares of the company, so counting the Wuling sales is legitimate.
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