No. 1 carmaker title shifts from GM to Toyota

DETROIT -- To pile on the bad news, GM's top sales analyst predicted January sales for the industry could fall below the annualized rate of 10 million, even lower than the pace at the end of 2008.

GM had been the world's biggest carmaker for 77 years — a title it had to scrub from the boilerplate at the end of its press release for Wednesday's sales announcement. It now reads: "One of the world's largest automakers."

But the title had become largely symbolic, admits Mike DiGiovanni, GM's sales analyst.

"I don't think being No. 1 in sales means anything to the consumer. Everybody needs to be focused on viability and profitability," he says. "Being No. 1 in sales or No. 5 in sales in this global economic crisis isn't all that important. All companies are really facing the greatest risks and challenges that we've faced since the Great Depression."

As Toyota assumes the mantle of world's largest automaker, it's also warning investors it will post its first annual operating loss in 70 years and is getting rid of all of its temporary workers as it tries to ride out the global sales slump.

Losing the title is a little sad for GM, says Shelly Lombard, an analyst at Gimme Credit, but is something they should shake off.

"Even when they had that title, they weren't making any money. It was an empty title," she says. "Right now, the only title that matters is 'The World's Most Profitable Carmaker.' "

That could be a long way off for GM. On Wednesday, it got the $5.4 billion second installment of $13.4 billion in loans from the U.S. Treasury. It received $4 billion late last year. A third installment is to come Feb. 17, which also is the deadline for presenting the government a viability plan.

Fritz Henderson, GM president and COO, said this week he's confident GM can meet the deadline. "It's a tight time frame. We're confident we can achieve all our milestones. Not everything has to be done by Feb. 17," he said, adding that by then, the company needs to have a good sense of where it's headed in terms of getting concessions from bondholders and its union.