Toyota are refusing to let the recent natural disasters in the far-east hold them back as sales for April rose by 11.6%, thus allowing them to gain valuable ground on Ford who currently occupy second place in the US market share table.

Total industry sales for North America as a whole increased by 2.3% on last year however and according to Don Johnson, GM's vice president for sales – the first quarter has been surprisingly kind to the US automotive sector. He said, 'When you look back at the first few months of the year, all of us have been surprised about how well the industry has performed'. Despite the fact that GM lost almost two full points from their overall market share that now takes them to 18%, GM have still raised their annual forecast figures by 500,000 and expect to sell in the region of 14 to 14.5m vehicles by year end.

'We believe that strength in the manufacturing sector and strong retail sales will continue to lead to more job creation. That’s going to help more consumers put the recession behind them and drive vehicle sales higher for both the industry and GM.'

He went on to conclude: 'There’s no doubt the Japanese are back in the market," he said. "They are being particularly aggressive in the fleet market.'

Added by:

Luke Durkin, New Media Editor