By John Porretto
The Associated Press

DETROIT - North American automotive production will top 16.7 million in 2002, the third-largest total ever, Ward's Automotive Reports predicted Friday.

Most automotive assembly plants are idle for the holidays, with many scheduled to resume production Jan. 2. Including estimates for this week and some spot production next week, Ward's projects 2002 output to be 16,748,604 vehicles, up 5.9 percent from 2001.

The two top years for production were 1999 and 2000, each of which saw some 17.6 million vehicles produced.

In the United States, automakers will make an estimated 12.3 million vehicles this year, an increase of 7.5 percent from 2001 and the fifth-highest total ever, Ward's said. Canada and Mexico each will post their third-largest production years in 2002, the industry publication said.

Canada's total is forecast to be 2.6 million vehicles, some 800,000 more than Mexico.

General Motors Corp., the world's No.1 automaker, is expected to account for 33.6 percent of U.S. production. No. 2 Ford Motor Co. is at 27.7 percent, and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group is at 14.1 percent.

Among the foreign makers, Honda of America Manufacturing Inc. is expected to account for 6.1 percent of the 2002 U.S. total, followed by Toyota Motor Manufacturing Inc. at 5.5 percent and Nissan Motor Manufacturing Corp. at 3.4 percent.

The foreign automakers' production numbers will increase in the coming years. Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai all are adding manufacturing capacity in North America.

In a research note Friday, Merrill Lynch's John A. Casesa said GM, Ford and Chrysler collectively have lost 1.8 percent market share so far this year, "a trend that looks unlikely to reverse course anytime soon."

Automakers report December and year-end U.S. sales Friday.

Industry analysts say domestic sales of new cars and trucks appear to be headed for a strong finish to the year, boosted mightily by profit-curtailing incentives.

Some analysts say GM is leading the way by spending between $2,500 and $3,000 a vehicle on incentives as it tries to post back-to-back years of market-share gains.