It's also a delightful answer when you're "in a pub having an argument", if no one thought of that as a possible answer. Something that makes you smile is a good thing.
> The point still stands: By no reasonable definition is Lego the largest manufacturer of tires.
This is clearly not true. All it takes is to acknowledge that Lego produces tires (which it does), check how many they produce per time period (which they provided) l, and compare with other statistics from other tire producers (which they do).
At best, you can claim that your personal definition of what a tire is doesn't match Lego's.
Think of all the makes of tyre you know. Who would make the most tyres each year? The simple answer is Lego! Since 2006, Lego makes around 306 million rubber tyres each year for its construction kit toys. In 2010, this number was topped at 381 million tyres, easily beating all other tyre manufacturers. Even though Lego products are unlikely to fit an everyday car, they do fit all descriptions of a standard tyre, albeit of the solid rubber variety. Even the rubber compound used for the Lego products would not be out of place on a domestic car.
"Largest tire manufacturer" could reasonably be interpreted to mean:
* Largest company that manufactures tires
* Company that produces the most tires by mass/weight/volume
* Company that produces the most tires by number of tires
If you read the record, it's clear they mean the latter interpretation. By that interpretation, it seems like LEGO clearly is the winner.
The things they make are tires: They are rubber-like and go around wheels. There is no rule anywhere on Earth that says tires must not be on toys.
G*P said largest tire manufacturer, but if you click the link the article is titled "toy tyres". The article also points out that this 300M is also more than any automobile tire mfer. So it's not like any wool is being pulled, the record is for toy tyres.
