General Motors boss Rick Wagoner insists the US company will not give up its position as the world's top automaker without a fight. Speaking ahead of this weekend's press opening of the North American International Auto Show, the GM chairman and chief executive said he was well aware of the seemingly unstoppable threat posed by Japan's Toyota.
"I like being number one, and I think our people take pride in it. So it's not something we're going to sit back and let somebody else pass us," Wagoner told reporters on Friday.
"We're going to have to fight for every sale and do it in way that is consistent with building the enterprise," he said.
"If as a result of that we get passed, it won't be a happy day for me. But I've lost basketball games before, and as a result of that you get ready, you learn and go back and play the next day," said Wagoner, who played college basketball at North Carolina's Duke University in the early 1970s.
"We're going to fight to keep the position, and if we lose, we're going to fight to get it back."
Last month, Toyota said it planned to make 9.42 million vehicles worldwide this year. That would exceed the 9.18 million GM expected to have made in 2006.
This year, GM's production looks likely to fall with the company, like its Detroit rival Ford, laying off thousands of workers and shuttering plants.
