TOKYO (Bloomberg) — Toyota Motor Corp., wary of trumpeting its success while US automakers shut plants and cut jobs, is downplaying its sales outlook in North America, said analysts and investors — who aren't buying it.The company's sales in the region will grow as much as five times faster than what the carmaker, poised to become the world's biggest, predicts for the year ending March 31, according to analyst estimates. North America accounts for about 60 percent of Toyota's operating profit.

"Toyota has spent decades winning the hearts and minds of US consumers," said Yasuhiro Matsumoto, a senior analyst at Shinsei Securities Co. in Tokyo. "They don't want to gloat when the US Big Three are having so much trouble."

Toyota's prediction that its North American sales growth will plummet to 1.6 percent this business year from 15 percent last year comes as the company is poised to surpass General Motors Corp. in annual world-wide sales. The Toyota City, Japan- based maker of Camry sedans and Prius hybrid cars has said it is concerned about criticism as it takes away sales from GM, Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler unit.

Twelve years ago, President Bill Clinton threatened 100 percent tariffs on Japanese luxury cars as the US and Japan battled over auto exports. In the 1980s, Ford workers smashed Japanese cars with sledgehammers, blaming them for lost jobs.

Since then, Toyota has won over not only consumers but also local politicians as it has built new US plants and hired American workers. The company also spent $4.6 million to lobby US lawmakers last year, though analysts say the risk that legislators will push for new trade barriers has lessened.

"We can't take anything for granted," said Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco. "But we believe that our efforts such as building more in the US, increasing labour and investing in training and education will encourage such a situation not to occur."

Toyota has exceeded its own North American sales outlook each year for at least the past four years. Still, the company believes this year's forecast is accurate, Nolasco said. "We won't intentionally aim low and shoot high," he said.

Analysts and investors disagree. Toyota's North American sales will grow 9 percent in the year ending March 31, even as the overall market shrinks or is little changed, predicted Shinsei's Matsumoto. Kurt Sanger, a Tokyo-based analyst at Macquarie Securities Co., said the sales may rise 5 percent.