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Cars and Drivers

GM May Take Back No.1 Car Company Spot From Toyota Due To US Taxpayers

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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GM (NYSE: GM) may be the No.1 car company in the world this year, after it lost that position to Toyota (NYSE: TM) three years ago. The change of fates has more to do with the Japanese  earthquake and Toyota recalls than anything GM has done. Of course, if GM had not been rescued by US taxpayers it might not be in a position to take any bragging rights at all.

GM is in trouble, and no move into the No.1 position in the global auto manufacturing business will change that fact. GM’s share price is down 10% over the last six months, and the stocks of both Ford (NYSE: F) and Toyota have done better.

GM has outsold every other Western car company that does business in China and that is a great deal of its appeal as a stock.  The automaker’s success in China, however, cannot offset its problems in the US and Europe. Its EU troubles are due to lackluster sales at its Opel and Vauxhaul units.

Ford passed GM in domestic monthly car sales in March, by 212,295 to 206,621. Ford’s light truck sales were strong compared to GM’s. The pick-up and SUV segments are important to both companies. Ford’s perennial powerhouse in the sector–the F-150–is selling particularly well.

China may be GM’s future, but the company cannot thrive when the markets that made it the No.1 car firm for decades are struggling.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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