General Motors retakes title of top-selling global automaker

General Motors sold just over 9 million cars and trucks world-wide last year to reclaim the title of the world's top-selling automaker. The company says it sold 9.03 million vehicles last year, up 7.6 percent from 2010. That beat Toyota, which took the crown away from GM in 2008.
Toyota sold 7.9 million vehicles last year. The March earthquake in Japan cut Toyota's factory production and hurt its sales. Germany's Volkswagen took second place with a record 8.156 million sales in 2011. That was up 14 percent over 2010. Before 2008, GM had held the title for more than seven decades. The title doesn't mean much to GM's bottom line. But it's an example of how far the company has come since it nearly collapsed in financial ruin in 2009.