Toyota sales surge past Ford

American car manufacturing giant Ford has fallen to third place in terms of sales in the US market.

After sitting in second position since the Great Depression era, the car company saw Japanese marquee Toyota move into second place in 2007.

General Motors remains top of the American sales league, despite recording a seven per cent drop in sales - outselling Toyota by 1.1 million vehicles.

Toyota - which owns brands including Lexus and Scion - saw its sales increase by 2.7 per cent, and last year recorded its twelfth consecutive year of record sales, according to figures from Autodata.

The company passed Chrysler in 2006 to move into third position on the table and its upward march appears relentless.

In stark contrast Ford saw sales slump 12 per cent among its three American brands, which include Lincoln and Mercury, and sold 234,000 fewer vehicles than its Japanese rival.

This was the first time Ford has slipped from the second spot since 1931, and has faced tough trading conditions of late.

Ongoing economic fears, in part caused by the credit crunch, along with higher petrol prices and poor consumer confidence, have all taken their toll on the industry, with Ford particularly hard hit.

"The most important thing that we're driving to is to return our business to profitability in 2009," said George Pipas, chief sales analyst at Ford.