The automobile industry has continued to witness unprecedented shifts as competition intensifies amidst emerging innovations and disruptions setting the market’s pace. For some companies, it means staying ahead, while for some others, it means losing their place in the market.

In the U.S., the electric vehicle market led by Tesla has eclipsed the progress of companies running gasoline vehicles. Tesla has been watching them from a league of its own, fight for the leadership of their outdating market. The gasoline auto companies have had to contend with the global push for cleaner energy, which has been increasingly discouraging the use of combustible engine vehicles.

However, amidst the push for cleaner energy and global chip shortage, the market has been bubbling, and in the most astounding way, it has produced a new leader.

Toyota Motor has dethroned General Motors as America’s top-selling automaker in 2021, marking the first time since 1931 that the Detroit automaker wasn’t the best-selling car company in the U.S.

It also marks the first time a non-domestic automaker has taken the top spot in America. CNBC reports, explaining why Toyota got ahead this time.

Toyota was able to manage supply chain issues better, allowing it to take away GM’s throne for the first time in 90 years. An ongoing shortage of semiconductor chips caused sporadic shutdowns of plants and led to record-low vehicle inventories in 2021.

GM said Tuesday it sold 2.2 million vehicles in the U.S. in 2021, down by 12.9% compared to the year earlier. Toyota, by comparison, said it sold 2.3 million vehicles in the U.S. last year, up by 10.4% compared to 2020. The difference in sales between the two automakers was 114,034 vehicles.

Jack Hollis, Toyota North America’s senior vice president of automotive operations, downplayed the company’s No. 1 ranking.

“Yes, we did surpass General Motors in sales,” he told reporters during a call Tuesday. “But to be clear, that is not our goal, nor do we see it as sustainable.”

GM has been the largest seller of vehicles in the U.S. since 1931, when it surpassed Ford Motor, according to data from industry publication Automotive News.

GM’s stock achieved a new 52-week high Tuesday of $65.98 a share before closing at $65.74 a share, up by 7.5%. The jump followed the automaker saying the chip shortage was easing and it increased production at the end of the year.

GM said its fourth-quarter production and wholesale deliveries were up significantly from the third quarter as supplies increased. Dealer inventory, including in-transit vehicles on their way to dealers, was 199,662 at the end of the fourth quarter, up from 128,757 cars and trucks at the end of the third quarter.

Toyota was able to achieve the milestone by increasing sales of both cars and trucks last year, despite a 25% decline in sales of its full-size Tundra pickup. Sales of its smaller Tacoma pickup increased by 5.7% to 252,520 units.

It was a rough sales year for GM due to the semiconductor chip shortage. Sales of its highly important Chevrolet Silverado pickup – its best-selling vehicle – were down by 10.8% to less than 530,000 units.

Aside from Ford, which sold 1.7 million vehicles through November, most major automakers are scheduled to report their fourth-quarter and 2021 total domestic sales on Tuesday. New light-duty vehicle sales are expected to be about 15 million in 2021.

Industry analysts and forecasters are mixed on their sales forecasts for 2022 due to the volatility in the market. They range from about 15.2 million vehicles to around 16 million vehicles or better.

GM North America President Steve Carlisle said the automaker plans to increase its sales and marker share next year, potentially regaining its sales title.

“In 2022, we plan to take advantage of the strong economy and anticipated improved semiconductor supplies to grow our sales and share,” he said in a release Tuesday.

A Deed of Assignment is a legal document that evidences a sale of land and transfers interest, right, ownership and title in a real property from the transferor (the seller) to the transferee (the buyer). This document (deed of assignment) is of high importance in landed property transactions and it’s considered a must for the transfer of ownership in land.

It is the legal document that records that a land owner or prior owner of a land who is the seller of the land have transferred all his title, ownership, interest and right on the land in question to the buyer. Without this document in land transactions, you have nothing, hence its reason of high importance and value in real estate law and real estate transactions.

A land owner or purported land owner who is selling a land and is against the buyer of the land having a deed of assignment on the land in question is a fraudster. Deed of assignment is the first check that authenticates the genuineness of a land transaction.

Deed of assignment can suffice also as a valid root of title (although it is said to be not a good root of title), be it as it may, it is a step in the right direction in favour of whosoever can provide or in possession of the document (deed of assignment) on a particular piece of land as It can serve as an evidential proof of ownership (albeit rebuttable) of that land. (To learn more of why deed of assignment is not a good root of title, read the article already published in this platform in that regard titled “Your land C f O does not prove that you own the land).

It should therefore be taken into consideration that a deed of assignment despite how important it is in a land transaction is not a good root of title save and except it has been duly perfected. It is still a worthless piece of paper and your ownership of the property which it evidences can still be contested by a third party.

Therefore, for you to make your deed of assignment valid and sacrosanct, you need to duly perfect it. Perfection of a title document or deed of assignment is the registration of that legal document with the appropriate land registry where that land is located or situated. Without perfection of the deed of assignment, the legal document is worthless and of no value because the transaction is still incomplete or inchoate.

From now onward, whatever landed property transaction you get yourself involved in, make sure to get a deed of assignment on that property as it is the proof that title, interest, rights and ownership on that land have changed hands from the previous owner (the seller) to you the buyer and when you obtain a deed of assignment on the property also make sure it is duly perfected if not the deed of assignment will be valueless as an unperfected deed of assignment is a worthless piece of legal document and it’s of no importance.

N/B: Always get a lawyer involved in your dealings.