Toyota Motor (TM) Sales Loss Worse Than Thought, Ford (F) Reaps Benefit

Did the Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) actually transfer market share over to is competitors, or was the hype of the current recall and Toyota’s damaged reputation just that – hype, with no real bite?

As it turns out, the expected 11.9% drop in January’s year-over-year sales for Toyota wasn’t aggressive enough… sales were down 15.8% on a year-over-year basis.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F), on the other hand, saw a nice 25% increase in total January sales on a year-over-year basis. General Motors reported an increase of 22% in January sales. Korean carmaker Subaru saw a 28% increase in January sales.

Don’t be too impressed by the industry just yet though. KIA said its January sales were flat relative to last year’s, indicating that a rising tide of car buyers isn’t lifting all boats.

As for January’s market share (the litmus test), Ford says it improved its share from 14% last January to 16% this January.

Toyota’s market share was expected to drop to 14.7% in January in the shadow of the recall – the lowest since March of 2006. In light of the bigger-than-expected dip in January’s results though, the new market share may be even slightly less than anticipated.

Strong sales of mid-sized and fuel-efficient cars was the biggest reason for most of the year-over-year improvements for any carmakers who had them.