Toyota Short of Topling GM Worldwide

Toyota is about 3,000 vehicles short of topling GM worldwide. Toyota said it sold 9,366 million vehicles around the world last year, about 3,000 fewer than the tally from General Motors - the world's No. 1 automaker for 77 years. Earlier, Toyota Motor Corp. said it had sold about 9.37 million vehicles worldwide last year, making for an extremely tight race with U.S. automaker General Motors Corp., which said it sold 9,369,524 vehicles. Both companies have denied they are too concerned about the numbers games. Toyota executives even have expressed worries about a possible backlash if they dethrone GM, an American icon. They have been setting up more plants in North America and have tried to show it is a good U.S. corporate citizen.