While Ford and Chevrolet continue their perennial fight for dominance in the U.S. car and truck market, Toyota has slipped in under the radar to claim the top spot as the best-selling automotive brand in America.
The Japanese automaker is just too modest to mention it.
Through May, Toyota Motor Corp. led all brands with U.S. unit sales of 954,000 vehicles, a razor-thin 5,200 units ahead of General Motors Corp.’s Chevy brand and 40,000 better than Ford Motor Co.’s Ford brand.
The Toyota brand’s lead is far wider when it comes to all-important retail sales, which exclude low-margin sales to car rental companies and other fleets.
In April, Toyota’s namesake brand claimed 15.8 percent of the U.S. retail vehicle market, compared with 11.9 percent for Chevy and 11.1 percent for Ford, according to an analysis of national sales transaction data prepared for The Detroit News by R.L. Polk & Co.
The Toyota figures include its youth-oriented Scion models because they are sold through the same dealer network, but exclude its luxury Lexus brand.
Toyota spokesman Irv Miller said the company is aware of its position in the market but believes there is little value in leveraging it for promotional purposes because most Toyota buyers are more interested in attributes such as quality and fuel economy.
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In the same vein, Toyota has downplayed the fact that it passed GM in worldwide sales volumes in the first quarter of this year.
“We’re not crowing about it, because it’s not in our nature to crow,” Miller said. “Who really cares? To those people who have Toyota on their consideration list, it isn’t going to matter. And to those people who aren’t considering Toyota, it doesn’t matter either.”
But it matters to Ford and Chevrolet. The battle for the title of America’s best-selling brand has long been waged between Ford and Chevy and each makes much of the bragging rights that come with it.
When Chevy launched an advertising campaign claiming it was the No. 1 brand in 2005 based on unit sales, Ford shot back by releasing vehicle registration figures that showed the crown still belonged to the blue oval. Ford did not dispute the sales numbers, but said registration data should be the “industry standard.”
Toyota took the lead in retail sales without fanfare at the end of last year and has continued to beat Ford and Chevy since.
Toyota has been steadily chiseling away for years at Ford and Chevy’s market share. Its advance gained momentum with the 2002 launch of the Scion line, aimed at younger, first-time new car buyers.