CHANGE! For the First Time Ever, the Best-Selling Carmaker in America Isn’t an American Carmaker.

Toyota has been at the top of global sales for a decade, partly because General Motors began ceding foreign markets during the Obama years. This followed the Obama administration’s takeover of GM in 2009, under the guise of rescuing it from bankruptcy and saving American jobs, earning the carmaker the derisive nickname “Government Motors.” The once-proud iconic American manufacturer has never been the same since.

Toyota’s victory over GM caps a year when the American carmaker’s sales shrank 12.9% as it sold 2.2 million vehicles in the United States. By contrast, Toyota’s sales increased 10.4% in 2021 compared to 2020, as it sold 2.3 million cars to Americans.

Analysts believe Toyota was able to sell 114,034 more cars in the states than did General Motors because the domestic company had supply chain issues. Gearhead site The Truth About Cars says that GM “claimed its numbers were down due to the global semiconductor shortage that continues to disproportionally impact American automakers. While there are a few sound logistical reasons for that, the chip deficit also becomes a convenient excuse for brands that cannot seem to get their general supply chains under control. No matter how you slice it, GM looks to have screwed up managing inventory and Toyota is picking up the slack.”

Note that GM had previously led US sales every year since 1931.