FLINT, Mich. — General Motors has a shot at being No. 1 again.
The resurgent automaker reported Monday that its worldwide sales last year came within 30,000 of beating Japanese rival Toyota, which took a big hit because of safety recalls.
GM is hiring, producing more and basking in a better reputation for quality. It expects to sell even more cars and trucks this year, putting it within reach of the title of biggest in the world — an honor it held for 76 years before losing it in 2008.
Regaining the global lead means a lot to workers on the assembly line in Flint, a town devastated by years of auto-industry job losses. Two years ago, they didn’t know if their factory or even their company would survive.
Dana Rouse, a union official at the pickup factory here, called overtaking Toyota the Heisman Trophy of the auto business.
“We’re going to take Toyota on, and the people in Flint are going to be a part of that,” he said. “This is the birthplace of General Motors.”
GM executives say they are focused on keeping customers happy, not on the title. They remember the company’s disastrous recent history, when it sold cars at a loss just to hold on to market share.
“Satisfying and retaining our customers and delivering world-class products is pretty much the fundamental business that we’re in,” GM North America president Mark Reuss said Monday at the factory. “The rest of it may come, may not.”
Toyota sold 8.42 million vehicles worldwide in 2010, barely ahead of GM’s 8.39 million. GM made an impressive turnaround from 2009, when it was forced to take nearly $50 billion in government help and go through bankruptcy.
