It's only one quarter and it's only one time.

But industry watchers have seen the momentum changing for a while.

And now at last it's happened - Toyota has officially become the biggest car company in the world, based on sales results for the first three months of 2007.

The Japanese automaker passed longtime king of the car hill General Motors, by moving 2.35 million vehicles from showrooms into owner's garages between January and March.

G.M. sold 2.26 million by comparison.

The foreign automaker has been riding a quality reputation to the top for some time, and was among the first to produce fuel efficient cars. It also jumped on the hybrid bandwagon early, making its gas-and-electrically powered Prius one of the biggest sellers on the market.

The Camry and Corolla have also grown in stature and demand for those looking to buy a new car.

The two companies are a study in contrasts.

Toyota's production lines are humming, while G.M. has been forced to cut back its own production, as high gas prices saw the demand for its SUVs and light trucks plummet.

And while it's still early in the year, the results show that the company, once lauded as the 'world's biggest automaker', remains at a crossroads.

"Everybody on the road expects Toyota to overtake G.M. in 2007," agrees Credit Suisse analyst Koji Endo. "I won't say the trend is impossible to reverse, but it's extremely difficult.

"Toyota has been a success in almost all the regions, and is opening new plants. The only region G.M. continues to be strong [in] is China, and it has failed almost everywhere else."

While Toyota execs. are overjoyed that business is booming, they claim there's no real road race going on here.

"Our goal has never been to sell the most cars in the world," explains spokesman Paul Nolasco. "We simply want to be the best in quality. After that, sales will take care of themselves."

Another sign of the difference between the two - earnings.

Toyota expects to post a profit of about US$13 billion this year.

G.M. lost $3 billion last year and $12 billion the year before that.

And 2007 is only a few months old.