GM Was #1 for 90 Years. Then Toyota Happened.

GM sold more cars in America than anyone else for 90 straight years. In 2021, Toyota beat it by 114,034. 👇 GM or Toyota: which one is in your driveway? Tell me in the comments. 🔔 Subscribe for the next episode: the pickup truck wars. This is how it happened, with 31 years of real market-share data and every lead change: the Lexus gamble, Ford's 143-mph Taurus SHO, the Camry that just kept starting, the Prius, the 2008 crash and the bankruptcies, the recall, the 2011 tsunami, and the pile of computer chips Toyota saved for a bad day. CHAPTERS 0:00 Toyota beats GM by 114,034 0:38 1990: Detroit's world 1:10 The Lexus gamble 1:40 The 143-mph sleeper: Taurus SHO 2:33 Made in America 3:03 Detroit's truck boom 3:28 1997: The Camry takes #1 3:57 The Prius 4:23 Detroit's slow slide 4:50 2006: Toyota passes Chrysler 5:20 2007: Toyota passes Ford 5:39 The 2008 crash 6:07 GM and Chrysler go bankrupt 6:31 2009: Three points 6:45 The recall 7:22 2010: Ford strikes back 7:36 The 2011 tsunami 8:12 The long grind 8:44 2020: Three points again 8:59 The chip shortage 9:28 2021: The lead change 9:52 Where it ended 10:31 GM or Toyota? HOW WE COUNT Share of U.S. new light-vehicle sales (cars + light trucks), calendar year, by automaker group, all brands (Toyota includes Lexus; GM includes all its brands). 1990–2014: WardsAuto via the Economic Policy Institute. 2015–2021: company-reported U.S. sales divided by BEA total light-vehicle sales. Bars animate between yearly figures. Other sources: GM and Toyota Motor North America sales releases, CNBC, Reuters, Automotive Fleet, NBC News, CNN Money, Car and Driver, Motor Trend, MotorWeek, Hagerty, U.S. Department of Commerce. PHOTO & FOOTAGE CREDITS (all real photos and footage; via Wikimedia Commons unless noted) Public domain: IFCAR, OSX, Bull-Doser, Crisco 1492, Christopher Ziemnowicz, Exhilaration157; White House photos (Eric Draper, Kimberlee Hewitt, Pete Souza, official White House photos); White House video (West Wing Week); U.S. Department of Energy; U.S. Department of Labor; U.S. House Oversight Committee; NOAA/NESDIS. CC0: Charles from Port Chester, Cutlass, crash71100, Yourusernamewillbepublic2 (video). CC BY 2.0: dave_7, Charles from Port Chester, Kārlis Dambrāns, Niels de Wit, Riley, Robert Scoble, ajay_suresh. CC BY-SA 2.0: Bryan McDonald, Ken Lund, Marshall Astor, order_242, Quinn Dombrowski, RL GNZLZ, That Hartford Guy. CC BY 3.0: General Motors (photo); video: Booney Moonrock, Chris Cafiero, Edomurasaki, IBM Research, patmartel100, Reagan Library / White House TV Office, YouTube user "Editor". CC BY-SA 3.0: Artaxerxes, Bertel Schmitt, ChiefHira, Ellen Levy Finch, James Benjamin Bleeker, Jed, Skydivingdutch. CC BY 4.0: Coolalabright, Le hollandais volant, Umbra Lab, User3204; video: Sarah Stierch. CC BY-SA 4.0: Adam Weston, Ajrocket1, Alexander Migl, Elise240SX, Ermell, EurovisionNim, Husskeyy, LukaCali, MercurySable99, Navigator84, Oleg Yunakov, SsmIntrigue; video: Antony-22, Jonmallard, Koffermejia, Usmiech. Ad page, window stickers and newspaper front pages are re-created for illustration (fictional masthead); no original artwork used. Music: original score. The American Car Wars, Episode 3. Episode 2: How a Tiny Car Broke Detroit. #carhistory #toyota #generalmotors