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Few industries revel in statistics, sales crowns and defining moments the way the car business does. So when Toyota passed General Motors last year for the global sales crown, it made headlines across the globe. Really, it’s an almost meaningless event in business terms since even the casual observer could foresee that crossing of fates between the two companies coming for years.

This week we have another milestone. Toyota outsold Ford in the U.S. market last month by a tally of 228,000 cars to Ford’s 215,000. Ford still sold more vehicles in 2007, but the gap is now less than 200,000 vehicles. But in the grand scheme of things, this week’s news isn’t really staggering. But take a look at the seven-year wake leading up to this event. That’s staggering. In 2000, Ford sold 4 million cars, about what GM sold this year. From then until now, Ford’s sales have fallen by 1.3 million vehicles. Imagine taking Honda’s sales in 2000 and simply wiping them out. That’s how far Ford has fallen in seven years. In that time, Toyota sales soared by 1 million vehicles to 2.6 million. So it wasn’t just the industry darling who prospered at Ford’s expense. No wonder the company’s stock hit a 22-year low at $6 a share today.

That’s a long way down, and not the last of it. Like its crosstown rivals, Ford is struggling to cope with $3 a gallon gasoline. The housing crisis continues to sap home equity, which buyers once used to buy cars. And even fatter incentives are luring consumers to trade in for something new. For Ford, its highest-volume cars, like the yesteryear Mustang, brawny F-150 pickup, gas-chugging Explorer and unwanted Taurus sedan, are all frozen on the lot. Only the Fusion sedan and Edge suv seem to have captured a following. Looking at Ford’s lineup and the economy, CEO Alan Mulally’s second year looks even tougher than the first.

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General Motors has made some big announcements in the past year, promising to build as many as 100,000 Chevrolet Volts by 2010 and saying it will be the first to produce 1 million fuel cell vehicles, but we think it’s going way out on a limb with this one:

GM says it could have driverless cars on the road by 2018.

According to the Associated Press, GM is working with parts suppliers, university engineers and other automakers to develop cars that drive themselves. Company Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner will discuss the idea Tuesday afternoon in a keynote address to the Consumer Electronics Show.

“This is not science fiction,” Larry Burns, GM’s vice president for research and development, tells the AP.

Burns says the biggest obstacles may not be technical, but bureaucratic. Government regulation, liability laws and other issues pose a bigger impediment to driverless cars than any technical hurdles. He says GM will begin testing driverless cars by 2015 and have them on the road by 2018.

We’re not sure about that. Although the DARPA Urban Challenge has shown robotic cars work, the technology is still a long way from feasibility on a scale anywhere near GM is proposing. At least two competitors collided during the challenge, two mysteriously stopped in an intersection and a third ran into a building. In the end, just six of the 35 teams that entered finished the 60-mile race.

On the other hand, Carnegie Mellon University’s Tartan Racing team won the race - with a Chevrolet Tahoe supplied by GM (that’s it in the picture).

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SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 18, 2007 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) — General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM) late Tuesday said it will increase prices of most of its 2008 model year vehicles by an average of 1.5% to help offset increasing steel and commodity costs.

The price increases are effective with vehicles invoiced to dealers on and after Dec. 19, 2007. Some vehicles will not see a price increase, GM said.

The Detroit-based automaker’s shares closed the regular session up 53 cents at $26.92.

Brigid Gaffikin
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Source: CNN Money