Is pride more important than survival to the leaders of Ford and GM? The two carmakers have recently-and nearly simultaneously-announced that they are eliminating tens of thousands of jobs, closing dozens of factories, and accumulating billions of dollars in red ink. Yet just when you'd expect forestalling bankruptcy to be their primary focus, the companies began feuding over which has the top-selling brand in the country. In other words, all might be nearly lost, but we're still number one.

Earlier this year, GM's Chevrolet division began running ads proclaiming itself America's best-selling car for 2005. Then last weekend, Ford disputed that claim, citing industry market research indicating it sold more cars last year than Chevy. "We will be contacting GM as early as Monday to ask them to withdraw all of the leadership claims for the Chevrolet brand," Ford announced in a statement.

While Ford and GM engage in what amounts to a corporate spitting match, they seem to be losing sight of the obvious: they're both hemorrhaging market share! Ford and Chevrolet sales were down 4.8 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively, in 2005. However, in the same period, Toyota's sales rose 10.5 percent. Clearly, leaders at Ford and GM had better shift their attention from a pointless rivalry to staying in business. Bookmark this post on del.icio.us