Toyota top-selling automaker despite China slump

Toyota shrugged off China sales woes to stay the world's top selling automaker for the first half of this year, outpacing U.S. rival General Motors Co., which has boasted such bragging rights for seven decades until 2008. Toyota Motor Corp. sold 4.91 million cars and trucks around the world for the January-June period, down 1.2 percent from the previous year, according to numbers it released on Friday. GM said earlier this month it had sold 4.85 million vehicles worldwide in the six months, growing almost 4 percent as it gained U.S. sales faster than Toyota. GM was the top-selling automaker for seven decades before losing that title to the Japanese automaker in 2008. GM retook the spot in 2011, when Toyota's plants were slowed by an earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan that wiped out parts suppliers. Toyota has since recovered and was at the top again last year. But Toyota's sales in China were hurt by anti-Japanese sentiment that flared in the latter half of last year over a territorial dispute, setting off boycotts and riots. Toyota stayed ahead of GM because of solid sales in other regions. The maker of the Prius hybrid and Camry sedan also did better than expected in Japan, where the auto market has been stagnant for years.