Toyota back on top.

Selling 9.75M vehicles in 2012, Toyota (TM) reclaimed the title of world's largest automaker from General Motors, which sold 9.29M. It's a bounce back from the 2011 earthquake and a number of recalls which "dinged" Toyota's reputation. Key were U.S. sales which climbed nearly 500K to 2.1M cars, the highest level since 2008. Going forward, sales in China could be a challenge thanks to the on-going political tensions due to the island dispute