Asian competitors of GM and Ford -- including Toyota Motor, Nissan Motor, Honda Motor and Hyundai Motor -- account for 43% of all the passenger cars sold in the world, according to a recent report by brokerage CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets. The rest are sold by GM, Ford, DaimlerChrysler AG and other car makers outside Asia.

Yet stock-market investors are attributing far more value to Asia's car makers than their market share would suggest. As measured by the combined value of auto makers' shares listed on exchanges around the world -- in other words, the market capitalization of the global business -- Asian companies account for 73% of the worth of all car makers, the report says.

Michael Robinet, a vice president of CSM Worldwide, a Farmington Hills, Michigan, research company, predicts that including Nissan's French affiliate Renault, the four Asian auto makers will account for 65% of all the unit-sales growth in the global auto industry between now and 2012.

That helps explain why it's hard to find examples of investors exiting from Toyota. Campbell Gunn, the manager of the T. Rowe Price Japan Fund, raised his stake to 6.3% of overall investments as of the end of October, from 2.9% at the end of April, according to public disclosures. The fund gained 40% during 2005.

Mr. Gunn said through a spokesman that he has kept his Toyota holdings steady at 6.3% in recent months. Despite the heady valuation of Japan's biggest car maker, Mr. Gunn holds more of its stock than the 5.65% recommended weighting of Morgan Stanley's MSCI Japan Index, a benchmark used by professional fund managers.

That helps explain why Toyota's market capitalization is so big, says Mr. Richter, the CLSA analyst. "Over the long haul, everybody sees this company as the biggest winner."