Toyota second in the U.S.

Last year saw another massive surge for Toyota as it overtook Ford to become number two behind General Motors. In fact Japan's big three all did exceptionally well while the Detroit three lost more ground.

Toyota USA includes Toyota, Lexus and Scion, and in the last two years it has managed to cut GM's advantage by 1 million units and is now just over a million units behind.

The question on everyone's mind is whether Toyota can become the number one seller in the States before the end of the decade and what that would mean  for the American brands.

However the news is still good for all the Japanese brands with the lot gaining 2.1 share points in 2007, reaching 36.9 per cent. As for the big American brands it was yet another dismal year in a decade they would all rather forget.

The Detroit three  went down around 2.5 per cent with total share reduced to 51.1 per cent compared to 53.7 per cent in 2006.

The biggest loser of all was Ford which managed to fall 13.6 per cent overall (including trucks etc) with the blue oval's car division down even further, losing 27.6 per cent.

This is a big change from 2006 which marked the 19th time in 20 years that the brand had come out first.

With Ford having now sold Jaguar and Land Rover, we can only assume there will be brighter days ahead.