Autonews reports that the first half of 2008 had Toyota overtaking GM by over 274000 units, but the first half of this year Toyota was only in the lead by 11000 units.

These numbers do not mean that GM did better than Toyota but illustrate how badly the auto indrusty was shaken by the worst recession since the great depression.  They also show how much capacity has been lost and nobody really knows if it will ever return due to stricter credit application  processes.

Toyota was down 26%, GM down 21% and Ford was down 30%.

VW is also in the game and closing in on Toyota and GM because of the global plunge in demand.  During the first 6 months of this year Toyota outsold VW by 463,805 units but over the same period last year outsold them by 1.55 million.

I suspect that lead to narrow even further after VW gets the polo into the North American market so they can compete in the recently popular B-segment class.

• Report: Global auto industry getting better
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• Ford boosting sales goals as they see the recession ending