TOKYO, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp edged out Germany's Volkswagen AG for the third straight month to be the world's top-selling automaker so far this year, amid concerns that sales at the German company may suffer in the aftermath of a diesel emission scandal.
Toyota on Monday said it sold 7.49 million cars worldwide in the year to September, more than Volkswagen's 7.43 million during the same period. Toyota has been continuously out selling Volkswagen on a year-to-date basis since July.
The German carmaker is battling its biggest business crisis in its 78-year history after admitting last month it installed software in diesel vehicles to deceive U.S. regulators about the true level of their toxic emissions.
Total sales at Toyota and its subsidiaries Hino Motors and Daihatsu Motor Co rose 13.6 percent from the first eight months of the year, although sales were 1.5 percent lower from the same period last year. (Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu in Tokyo and Nadine Schimroszik and Andreas Cremer in Berlin; Editing by Anand Basu)