Toyota Ousts Ford From No. 2 Spot in U.S. Sales

DETROIT — The Ford Motor Company’s United States sales fell 12 percent in 2007, allowing Toyota Motor of Japan to replace it as the country’s second largest seller of vehicles.

It was the first year that Ford was not No.2, behind General Motors, since 1931.

Toyota, which was in a close — and still undecided — race with General Motors for the title of world’s largest automaker in 2007, said Thursday that its United States sales increased 2.7 percent last year.

G.M. said its United States sales declined 6 percent last year, as demand for big sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks were hurt by a housing slump, high gas prices and weak consumer confidence. Chrysler’s sales were down 3 percent for the year.

In December, sales were down for Ford, G.M., Toyota and Nissan. Honda’s sales were flat for the month, and Chrysler’s were up 1 percent.

While Toyota’s displacement of Ford is a momentous event for the auto industry, company officials played down its importance.

“We don’t pay a lot of attention to rankings such as that,” said a Toyota spokesman, Irv Miller. “What’s more important to us is maintaining our position with consumers.”

Although truck sales were slow across the industry, most of Ford’s decline came from its passenger cars, which were down 24 percent on the year. Ford stopped building the Ford Taurus sedan, which was sold exclusively to fleet operators like car-rental companies, at the end of 2006.

Over all, Ford sold 142,000 fewer vehicles to car-rental companies in 2007, a deliberate cutback aimed at increasing profit margins and the resale value of its products.

“While the decline is relatively large, much of it was anticipated at the beginning of the year,” said George Pipas, Ford’s chief sales analyst.

A bright spot for Ford was the Ford Edge crossover vehicle, which was introduced in late 2006. The company sold 130,125 of the Edge in 2007, 30 percent more than its goal.

G.M. also reduced its sales to rental companies, by 108,000 vehicles, to the lowest level in 9 years.

Both G.M. and Ford managed to cut their inventory of unsold vehicles significantly in 2007. G.M.’s inventory is the smallest it has been in 13 years.

“We certainly won’t have to deal with any inventory clearances, as we did a couple years ago,” said Mark LaNeve, G.M.’s vice president for sales and marketing in North America. “We’ll actually look to build some inventory during the spring.”