CSM Worldwide, the market leader in automotive forecasting and market intelligence, estimates employee pricing programs at DaimlerChrysler, Ford and General Motors spearheaded the pull-ahead of more than 200,000 units of sales over the past two months. Anticipating a slower sales rate in the remaining five months of the year, CSM is maintaining its U.S. sales forecast of 16.95 million units for 2005.

CSM's outlook stems from its new Global Light Vehicle Sales Forecast, which offers the CSM advantage of forecasting by vehicle (both nameplate and program code). CSM's report focuses on the comparative strengths and weaknesses of one vehicle program versus another, a valuable tool for OEMs and their suppliers.

Other highlights in the CSM Global Light Vehicle Sales Forecast include:

* Receding General Motors market share in the United States is projected to rebound, but not before the end of the decade. General Motors market share is forecast to shrink to 23.3 percent before recovering with a product blitz of its own.

* Toyota Group sales are projected to widen 32 percent to more than 2.7 million units, or 15.3 percent of the U.S. market by 2009.

* Global light vehicle demand is forecast to soar 21 percent to 69 million units by 2011. Robust sales growth will be driven by strengthening global economies, expanding world population and growth strategies by OEMs in developing auto markets such as China.

* Toyota is expected to pull within striking distance of General Motors as the world's largest seller of automobiles by 2008. Toyota is projected to narrow the gap of 1.9 million units in 2004 to only 140,000 units by 2008.

CSM Worldwide (http://www.csmauto.com ) supports more than 350 of the world's top automakers, suppliers and financial organizations with global market intelligence and forecasting services. With corporate offices in Detroit, CSM Worldwide covers the global automotive environment from London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Paris, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Shanghai, Bangalore and Budapest.