While the official first quarter reports aren’t in yet, Volkswagen is poised to overtake Toyota in the race for the world’s biggest car manufacturer for the quarter. Volkswagen’s released Q1 sales figures are currently higher than Toyota’s current estimates, though the Japanese automaker hasn’t released official numbers yet.

The first three months of 2009 saw 1.4 million vehicles sold by VW, a figure which eclipses Toyota’s estimates of 1.2 million sold cars. Should that figure be accurate enough, it would represent almost a 50% drop from Toyota’s figures in the first quarter of 2008.

The real key for Volkswagen is that it has managed to be strong in growing new-car markets such as Brazil, China, and Germany, of course. Such countries are also incidentally the ones whose respective governments have put good incentive plans in place for new-car purchases.

Conversely, the Toyota figures are affected in much the same way as the GM numbers have been—a tremendous drop in demand for new cars in the top markets that the Japanese car manufacturer is firmly entrenched in.

Source: Motor Authority