The Toyota Motor Corp. built more than 9 million vehicles last year for the first time. The production narrowed the gap with General Motors Corp. which has 160,000 more. This has tickled speculations among auto enthusiasts. Some are anticipating for a new auto giant reign while others detest its happening.

Toyota reported that its production output increased by 9.5 per cent in 2006 to 9.02 million vehicles despite a contraction in the Japanese market. The automaker’s production includes Toyota’s affiliates – Daihatsu and Hino. On the other hand, GM also reported 9.18 million vehicle productions for the same year. This figure was a slight increase from 9.05 million in 2005. As such, many analysts in the industry are expecting that GM will fall a notch lower to make way for Toyota as the new automotive leader around the globe.

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