Although the company has not yet finished counting sales for 2012, Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) claims to have sold more than 9.7 million units in 2012, allowing the company to reclaim its top spot in the rankings from General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM), which sold about 9.3 million units. Toyota lost the title to GM in 2011 following the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan and stalled the Japanese carmaker’s manufacturing capabilities.

Toyota’s sales jumped 22% in 2012 compared with a rise of 2.9% for GM, according to report from the Associated Press.

The trail of bad news for Toyota included a recall of some 16 million vehicles, beginning in 2010, for a sticking accelerator issue. But even that did not keep the company from being the top seller that year.

GM’s 2012 sales narrowly beat third-place carmaker Volkswagen, which sold 9.1 million vehicles.

Shares of Toyota are trading up about 0.4% at $96.48 in the first half-hour of trading today, in a 52-week range of $67.27 to $97.55. Shares of GM are down 1.5% at $29.92 in a 52-week range of $18.72 to $30.60.

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