Toyota seen losing top slot to VW

Japan's Toyota Motor Corp said on monday its global vehicle sales fell 13% IN 2009 TO ABOUT 7.81 MILLION VEHICLES, REDUCING ITS LEAD OVER gERMANY'S Volkswagen, which enjoyed a record year. it was adramatic turnaround from 2008, when toyota ended the 77 year reign of Us giant General Motors as the worlds top selling automaker with sales of 8.97 million vehicles, including subsidiaries Hino and Daihatsu. Now volkswagen, Europe's biggest carmaker, aims to overtake Toyota by 2018 as the global number one.
VW has reported 2009 sales of 6.29 million vehicles, up 1.1% from the previous year. last month it said it would buy 19.95 of Japan's Suzuki for more than $2.5 billion, boosting its global expansion.
Toyota- the maker of corolla, lexus and prius vehicles-was batterd by the global economic crisis and fell into the red for the first time in the year to march 2009 . it has slashed thousands of jobs.
More recently, Toyota's reputation for top notch safety has been hit by a series of recalls affecting millions of vehicle in the US and tens of thousands of cars in China.