That certainly seems to be one conclusion that could be reached from the latest automobile sales figures:
DETROIT, Aug. 1 ? The Japanese auto giant Toyota passed the struggling Ford Motor Company in July to rank as the second-biggest-selling auto company in the United States, behind General Motors, sales figures showed Tuesday.
And in another development that lifted automotive eyebrows, Honda, another Japanese company, outsold DaimlerChrysler?s Chrysler group last month for the first time.
In all, Detroit companies fell to their lowest market share in history last month, just 52 percent, as their lineups, laden with pickups and S.U.V.?s, failed to attract American buyers seeking fuel-efficient models in the face of high gasoline prices.
The Ford F-series pickup, long the country?s best-selling vehicle, fell 43.5 percent last month, while sales of Ford?s Explorer S.U.V. were down more than 50 percent.
?It hasn?t been a great day for Detroit,? said Ron Pinelli, the president of Autodata Corporation of Woodcliff Lake, N.J.
Asian automakers, by contrast, took 41.4 percent of the market in July, their best performance ever, topping the 40 percent share they captured in May.
And this may only be the midpoint of Toyota’s rise:
Toyota, which ranks No. 2 globally behind G.M., has been on an aggressive expansion push in the United States this decade, with a growing American network of plants. Toyota will open a factory in San Antonio this fall and is deciding where to build another assembly plant and an engine plant.
Its expansion is a reason many analysts predict Toyota could beat G.M. in global sales as soon as this year. G.M. retained a narrow lead in the first half of 2006, numbers from Toyota this week showed. Toyota?s sales in July gave it 16.2 percent of the American market, compared with 15.9 percent for Ford.
Three months ago, Toyota passed DaimlerChrysler, including both Chrysler and Mercedes-Benz, to rank as the third-biggest company in terms of American sales.
The reason for this, of course, is that Toyota and Honda have excelled at building good, reliable cars that consumers want and have also taken the lead in the hybrid market, which has seen a significant expansion as gas prices have increased in the past year.
Is this a bad thing ? Well, if you own stock in G.M., Ford, or DaimlerChrylser, it probably is. Otherwise, I don’t think so. Both Hondas that we own were built in the United States, one in Kentucky and the other in Ohio. By contrast, the last American car I owned, a Pontiac, was built in Ontario, Canada. You tell me which one is the American car.
