Toyota sales declined nearly 9% as the company continues to suffer fall-out from their gas-pedal fiasco. However, some analysts were surprised that the impact for Toyota wasn’t significantly worse.

So with Toyota’s sales down, which models are car buyers now choosing in its place?

The Honda Accord which has been Toyota Camry’s primary competitor over the years, did see some marginal improvement. 20,024 Honda Accord’s were sold in February compared to 19,022 in January.

However, the big winner seems to be the Ford Fusion. The Ford Fusion sold 16,459 vehicles in February which was a phenomenal increase over January’s 12,179 vehicles.

The Fusion jumped to the 7th spot in this month’s vehicle rankings (up from Number 10 in last month’s rankings). The Fusion leaped over the Chevrolet Cobalt, Nissan Altima and Chevrolet Malibu.

Ford has certainly been aggressively targeting Toyota buyers. Both Ford Fusion and Toyota Camry are offering buyers a $1,000 rebate this month. However, with negative headlines continuing for Toyota, we would expect the Ford Fusion to take additional market share from the Toyota Camry this month. In fact, it is very real possibility that the Ford Fusion will outsell the Toyota Camry for the first time ever this month.

However, if there is anything that we should have learned from the market crash of the last couple of years is that you should never sell when the rest of the market is panicking.

While Toyota’s product flaws and bungled response deserve plenty of criticism, some of the recent warnings have been over the top. Last week, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood even warned Toyota owners to stop driving their vehicles. Some Toyota owners are even responding to these safety concerns by looking to trade their vehicle for a less-risky option.

Unfortunately, the negative fallout from these product concerns is causing the resale values of the affected Toyota vehicles to decline dramatically. Edmunds.com estimates that the affected vehicles have seen their values fall by up to 10%.

This can be particularly troubling to Toyota owners who purchased their vehicle on the basis that they were buying a high quality vehicle which would retain its value much better than any of its competitors.

While this crisis is certainly having a negative impact on Toyota dealerships that now seem to be almost vacant, it represents a unique opportunity to consumers.

Toyota has developed its reputation by making high quality cars and trucks that consumers like to buy. Their sterling reputation and high resale values have allowed dealerships to consistently sell their vehicles at close to actual sticker price. Toyota dealers rarely needed to resort to heavy price discounting due to the demand for their products.

This trend is almost certain to change in 2010. Soon these dealerships will get the green light to begin selling their Toyota inventory again, but they will face the challenge of winning back customers who now have serious doubts about Toyota quality. Heavy discounts, rebates and incentives will undoubtedly be put in place as Toyota looks to move their stagnant inventory.

American consumers will likely be offered the best deals on Toyota vehicles in years. It will be the consumer who will possess the upper-hand in sales negotiations. And since Toyota will certainly be refocused on producing higher-quality vehicles, consumers will be purchasing higher quality vehicles at a reduced cost.