Big Winner in July - Toyota!

Amid the gloom of bankruptcy in the city of Detroit, one bright spot has been the performance of its hometown automakers.

General Motors (GM, Fortune 500), Ford (F, Fortune 500), and Chrysler have been gaining ground from competitors, posting solid profits, and winning historic praise for the quality and drivability of their products. They are producing standouts in some of the industry's most hotly contested segments. The mid-size Ford Fusion is selling as fast as dealers can load the delivery trucks, while the full-size Chevy Impala has won an unprecedentedly high rating from influential Consumer Reports.

But a closer look at the sales numbers and financial results just published reveal that the big winner for the month of July was -- hold for it -- Toyota.

That assertion will draw hoots and hollers from Detroit loyalists. They point out -- correctly -- that the local teams have added market share this year while Toyota (TM) has lost a smidgen. And they will complain -- also correctly -- that Toyota is getting an unfair advantage from the cheap yen and is boosting sales with unusually high incentives.

All true. Yet take a look at what happened last month:

--More Americans bought cars and trucks with the Toyota emblem on the hood than with the Chevrolet bowtie. Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie ... and Toyota, anyone? That's despite the far lower number of Toyota dealers and Toyota being far less competitive in the industry's hottest segment: full-size pickup trucks.

--Also in July, Toyota Motor Sales in the U.S. sold more light vehicles than Ford Motor Co. -- again despite having far fewer dealers and selling far fewer trucks. Ford has been having a fabulous year, but last month, Toyota outsold it to become the second-largest car company in America.

--Toyota appears well on its way toward producing more than 10 million vehicles worldwide this year, which would represent an all-time record for any automaker. GM and Volkswagen will have to fight it out over second place.

As one analyst gleefully exclaimed, "The samurais are back!"

Toyota's July surge came despite the announcement that it would pay $1.6 billion to compensate vehicle owners who suffered financial losses as a result of sudden, unintended acceleration between 2009 and 2010. The settlement will compensate Toyota owners who sold or traded in their vehicles at a loss with $125 to $10,000 per car, depending on the level of depreciation. It does not, however, cover individual personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits that will have to be contested later. The first case to go before a jury is starting in Los Angeles. (Toyota also announced a voluntary recall on Wednesday of 342,000 Tacoma trucks over faulty seatbelts).