Toyota sales pass Ford

Toyota has unseated Ford as the world's second-largest vehicle manufacturer. The long-anticipated switch came as the major US car firms lost customers to Japanese marques in their own market last year.

While there was some comfort for Ford in the fact that it retained its position as the second biggest car maker, if Toyota's heavy truck subsidiary, Hino, is excluded from its sales numbers, Toyota's steady ascent towards its goal of grabbing 15 per cent of the global car market some time in the next decade continues apace.

With a current share of 11 per cent now, a rise to 15 per cent would also put Toyota ahead of General Motors, which said it had 14.7 per cent in 2003.

Toyota said its group sold 6.78 million vehicles last year, up 10 per cent from 2002 as it boosted its presence in every major car market. That was 60,000 more than the 6.72 million vehicles sold by the family of Ford cars, which include marques such as Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin along with US brands such as Mercury, and Lincoln.

The Japanese firm's success comes as Toyota Ireland looks set to top the January sales, with initial sales figures suggesting it could may yet manage a 15 per cent share of the Irish market going into February, overtaking Ford. Provisional figures show it has recorded a 70 per cent increase in sales on the same period last year, thanks largely to the popularity of its Avensis model.

Overall sales figures for the busiest month of the car sales year suggest that the market could be up slightly on last year, though it is still too early to say for certain and the figures may be impacted by the fact that there are fewer working days this January than the same month last year.