General Motors has played down the fact it's no longer the World's biggest carmaker following  77 years in the top spot.

Toyota officially overtook the American manufacturer after reporting this week it sold 8.97 million cars last year compared to GM's 8.35 million, reports The Times.

GM'S sales analyst Mike DiGiovanni said: "I don't think being number one in global sales means much at all to the average consumer. I think it's an internal benchmark of our industry."

The US manufacturer is working to an end-of-March deadline to present a viability plan to the country's Government to prove it deserves the $13.4 billion (£9.7 billion) emergency loan it was given to avoid bankruptancy.