Toyota Motor company, beset by huge safety recalls and a host of lawsuits over deaths linked to its cars, tumbled from third to 360th on the annual Forbes list of the world's leading companies.
The Japanese firm trailed far behind rivals Ford, Honda, and Hyundai in the 2010 listing, which ranks 2,000 of the world's best corporate performers based on an equal weighting of sales, profits, assets and market value. Toyota was ranked third last year and 10th five years ago.
US investment giant JP Morgan Chase topped this year's list, removing General Electric from the number one spot.
US car makers General Motors and Chrysler, which are currently turning around their businesses after filing for bankruptcy protection last year, were absent from the list. Germany's Daimler was ranked 388th and Volkswagen dropped off the list due to the complexity surrounding its 2009 merger with Porsche.
Toyota, which dethroned General Motors as the world's biggest car maker in 2008, has recalled around 10 million vehicles worldwide due to accelerator and brake defects, which have been blamed for 58 deaths in the US.
In the latest blow, international ratings agency Moody's today downgraded the beleaguered car maker because of uncertainty over 'product quality' potentially hitting sales following the mass recalls.
Earlier this week the company agreed to pay a $16.4m fine, the largest for a car maker in the US, for hiding for at least four months accelerator pedal defects blamed in the US deaths.
Despite the world financial crisis, banks still dominated the list with 308 lenders in the lineup, mainly thanks to their assets, said Forbes Magazine which compiles the list. US investment giant JP Morgan Chase topped the list.
Forbes said its top 2,000 companies account for $30 trillion in revenue, $1.4 trillion in profits, $124 trillion in assets and $31 trillion in market value, up 61% from the previous year.
