Believe it or not, but no motor company has yet been able to sell 10-million vehicles in a year and it seems this target is set to elude new No. 1, Toyota, at least for the time being.

The front-running Japanese company had targeted to break the 10-million barrier in 2009, with projected sales of 10,4 million. However, the global economic downturn and particularly Toyota's big drop in sales in the US has forced a rethink. The latest forecast is to sell 9,7 million units next year. (The 2008 target is now 10,5 million, which is down from an original 9,85 million).

Although there are some still contesting the fact that Toyota overtook General Motors at the end of 2007 the Japanese giant was well ahead of The General at the six month mark this year with 4,82 million sales to the 4,54 million of GM. (GM counts sales from a Chinese company in which it has a minority stake in its annual global total and this is disputed by, among others authoritative Automotive News).

All these negative developments have made a big impact on Toyota's bottom line and it is forecasting that it will record its first annual profit decline in seven years; it posted a drop in net profit of 28% in the quarter to June.

Toyota also hiked its car prices in Japan for the first time in 30 years as costs rose - particularly the price of steel. The first vehicles to have their prices lifted were the Prius hybrid (up 3%) and the company's commercial vehicles (up 2%).
This was the first time since 1974 that the car giant has raised the domestic prices of existing models rather than waiting for the introduction of new or upgrade models.

Toyota has been caught in a vice in the United States where it has had to keep on paying workers at its idled San Antonio plant that makes the Tundra large pick-up. The Japanese company was given a number of major concessions for building its latest North American plant in Texas, so could hardly lay off its employees after the plant had been running for a comparatively short time.

Analysts also say that if Toyota laid off American workers that would be "the shot heard 'round the world!" So the 2 000-odd permanent employees still draw a paycheque from a plant that is not producing anything. They perform maintenance work on equipment, talk about quality improvements, undertake practical training and even relearn basic skills.

They are luckier than the plant's 200 temporary workers and employees at its dedicated parts suppliers as they have all been laid off for an indeterminate period - probably until November at least.

Toyota's sales performance in the US in September is seen as one of its worst in the company's 50 years in this market, with sales slumping 32% compared to September 2007.

While Toyota is going onto the back foot its arch rival, the Volkswagen Group, with limited exposure in the troubled US market, moved into third place, behind Toyota and General Motors, in terms of global sales, by overtaking Ford after the first six months of 2008.

VW is very ambitious and is making no secret of the fact that its objective in the medium term is to unseat the Japanese giant as No. 1 motor manufacturer in the world, The VW Group's move into third place in global sales for the first time is seen as sending out strong signals about the German company's growing international presence and its aggressive product programme.