An article titled "Toyota Sold8.4M Cars In 2010 To Hold Top Spot" by Yuri Kageyama January 23, 2011 and published on the WDSU website goes inside the numbers. While Toyota is sitting on top of the automobile mountain, what is stunning is now General Motors is doing after a near-death experience in 2008 and 2009.
Both Toyota and General Motors have had their share of problems over the last couple of years. Toyota ran into a myriad of issues that damaged its once bulletproof engineering, reliability, and quality control record. There was a huge recall action that revolved around sudden acceleration on its most popular model in the United States, the Toyota Camry.
General Motors had even more serious problems that threatened the very survival of the company. When the economy went into a tailspin at the end 2008, demand for the company’s vehicle took a severe nosedive and tight credit markets made accessing financing difficult. GM was on the verge of default and going out of business.
GM is Rescued by the Government
A heated debate took place within the ranks of the United States government over whether to assist General Motors with loans to aid in its survival. Some Senators from states that host foreign automobile assembly plants stated that GM should be subject to market forces and go out of business. The final decision was made to extend billions of loans to the manufacturer and another automaker, Chrysler, in order to save millions of automobile industry related jobs.
President Barack Obama requested the resignation of the then current CEO of GM and it was placed into a pre-packaged bankruptcy from which it emerged as a new company. An article titled "GM CEO resigns at Obama's behest" by Mike Allen & Josh Gerstein March 29 2009 and published in the Politico goes into the change at the top of the automaker.
Automaker Comebacks
The power of global markets can’t be underestimated when examining the near number one position that General Motors holds when it was near death in 2009. Market growth in countries like China can quickly turn around the fortunes of a global company. Woes in one country could be offset by success in another. Toyota barely missed a beat even as it had problems in the United States with recalls.
One question is how the rebound of General Motors will play politically with those willing to allow the company to go out of business. Will voters and workers that depend on a healthy automobile business hold those politicians that advocated allowing two American automobile manufacturers to go under be made to pay at the ballot box? It is clear to most observers that having a vibrant General Motors is still better than having no GM at all, even if took a helping hand from the government for the company to survive.
