April sales reveal reborn Toyota

The king is dead, long live the king - that’s the sort of seesaw feeling we got when we read Toyota’s statement for the month of April. The Japanese automaker reported a 12 percent increase in demand, putting it ahead of the US market’s overall 2 percent. This seems to indicate that the opportunity for other mass market automakers to take up the juggernaut's previous market share has now closed. So, who’s missed out - Nissan or Hyundai? No, it’s Honda that’s finding most of its plans in tatters, and the refresh for the Civic can’t get here fast enough. The main reason why Toyota recovered is renewed stock, built up using local production. The automaker wants to cut dependency of Japanese imports as much as possible, and even the Prius hybrid will be built in North America soon.