Reality Check? Edmunds Sums Up Toyota as Stale, Out Of Date, And Appealing To Lower Economic Status

In December, 17.9 percent of car shoppers considered Toyota vehicles -- 2.3 percentage points below levels seen in December 2009, before the 2.3 million-vehicle recall for potentially sticky accelerator pedals. Overall, Edmunds finds that 2010 consideration for Toyota vehicles was down about 3.8 percentage points year over year.

In 2010, Toyota was the only major automaker to see a drop in overall sales (-0.3%), causing it to lose its No. 2 spot in sales and market share to Ford. The decline came even as Toyota offered the highest year-over-year jump in dealer incentives, which were up 33 percent in 2010 from 2009, according to Edmunds.com.