DETROIT — Toyota Motor Corp. continued to gobble up market share in 2006, passing DaimlerChrysler AG as the No. 3 auto seller in the U.S. for the first time during a full calendar year.

Toyota, which includes the Toyota, Lexus and Scion brands, ended the year with 15.4 percent of the U.S. automotive market, compared with DaimlerChrysler's 13.3 percent, according to figures released yesterday by Autodata Inc.

Toyota's market share rose more than 2 percentage points, up from 13.3 percent at the end of last year. The company had its best year ever in 2006, with sales up 12.9 percent for the year at more than 2.5 million vehicles.

Industry analysts say the Japanese automaker benefited from its reputation for quality and fuel efficiency as gasoline prices sent consumers fleeing to cars from trucks and sport utility vehicles during much of the year.

OVERALL SALES DECLINE

Industrywide, U.S. sales dropped 2.6 percent for the year to about 16.5 million from just under 17 million in 2005, Autodata said.

Ford Motor Co. was able to hold off Toyota and keep its title of No. 2 for 2006 after Toyota's sales surpassed Ford's for the first time in July and again in November. Ford ended the year with 16.4 percent of the U.S. market, and it has forecast a 14 percent to 15 percent market share for the next several years. That means Ford almost certainly will be passed by Toyota as No. 2 sometime next year.

"They've got a lot of momentum going into 2007, and we don't see the momentum slowing anytime soon," said Joe Barker, senior manager of global sales forecasting for CSM Worldwide, an automotive forecasting firm in Northville.

Ford has said it is not focused on keeping market share, but rather wants to sell cars at a profit. The company lost $7 billion during the first three quarters of 2006 and is in the midst of a major restructuring plan to shrink its factory capacity to match lower consumer demand.

Ford sales dropped nearly 13 percent last month compared with December 2005, and they were off 8 percent for the year at about 2.9 million vehicles. Ford attributed the decline to a drop in truck and sport utility vehicle sales and the end of production for the Taurus sedan.

DaimlerChrysler, including the Chrysler Group and Mercedes-Benz, sold 218,530 vehicles in the U.S. last month, a 1 percent decline from a year ago due largely to a dip in Mercedes sales. Chrysler's sales rose 1 percent, but Mercedes sales dropped 10 percent.

For the full year, DaimlerChrysler's sales were down 5 percent to more than 2.39 million compared with 2005. Chrysler was off 7 percent, while Mercedes was up 11 percent.

Ford sold a total of 231,900 light vehicles in December, with Toyota just behind the Dearborn-based automaker at 228,322. But Toyota's sales for the month continued to increase, up more than 12 percent compared with December 2005.

General Motors Corp., the world's largest automaker, reported December sales fell 13 percent to 334,501, and its sales for 2006 dropped 8.7 percent compared with the previous year. Its market share was 24.3 percent for the year, with just over 4 million vehicles sold.

TWO INCREASE SHARE

Jesse Toprak, chief economist for Edmunds.com, a research Web site for car buyers, said that of the major automakers, only Honda Motor Co. and Toyota saw increased market share. He predicted Toyota will take the No. 2 spot by the summer and win it for the year.

Some analysts, including Toprak, had expected Ford's sales would drop enough in December for Toyota to take the No. 2 spot for the month. But even though truck sales declined dramatically for the month, Ford's car sales rose enough to stay ahead of the Japanese automaker.

GM, FORD TRUCKS DROP

GM's skid was led by a nearly 19 percent decline in truck sales, while its car sales were off 1.6 percent.

Ford's decline for the month was led by the F-Series pickup, the top-selling vehicle in the U.S., whose sales were down 21 percent from a strong December 2005, the company said.

Ford sold 70,580 of the F-Series trucks last month compared with 89,491 in December 2005. For the year, the F-Series was down nearly 12 percent, ending the year with sales of 796,039 compared with 901,463 in 2005.

The company has said that softness in housing construction and higher fuel prices were responsible for the sales decline.

If the F-Series doesn't recover, it spells serious trouble for Ford later this year, even though it has some new products in the pipeline and its Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan and Lincoln MKZ midsize cars are selling well, Toprak said.

"They must have healthy F-150 sales in order to survive in the long term," he said.

Honda said its U.S. sales slipped 0.8 percent in December as a decline in Honda-brand sales offset gains for Acura.