GM, Ford, Chrysler's June Sales Drop

A declining U.S. auto market, big sales last year and large incentives on Toyota pickup trucks all contributed to a lackluster June for Detroit's three automakers and especially for General Motors Corp.

GM saw its sales plummet 21.3 percent compared with June of last year, while Ford Motor Co. sales dropped 8.1 percent and Chrysler Group saw a decline of 1.4 percent.

But it was the same old story for the Japan-based automakers, all of which showed impressive gains led by Nissan's 22.7 percent increase. Toyota Motor Corp. saw a 10.2 percent gain, while Honda Motor Co. rose 11.5 percent.

Ford barely managed to hold off Toyota as the nation's No. 2 auto seller in June and for the first half of the year, but Toyota narrowed the gap from 319,208 vehicles in the first half of last year to only 39,558 in the first half of 2007, according to Autodata Corp.

GM said it sold 320,668 passenger vehicles in June, compared with 407,513 during the same period last year. The declines for GM and Ford and came as they continued to wean themselves from low-profit sales to rental car companies.

Paul Ballew, GM's executive director of global market and industry analysis, blamed the company's sales decline on a planned reduction in fleet sales and a tough comparison with June of last year, when the company offered a big 72-hour sale.

Also, he said GM was surprised that Toyota offered zero-percent financing for 60 months, which cut into GM's pickup truck sales. He said the company may wind up altering its strategy of offering fewer incentives on pickups.

"If we have to make some changes in our incentive play, we will, because we are not going to cede ground in a category that we feel we're best in class in," he said.

GM's top-selling pickups, the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, saw declines of more than 20 percent, while the Toyota Tundra jumped 146.3 percent.

"Tundra really hit its stride this month, posting a record sales pace," Jim Lentz, executive vice president of Toyota's U.S. division, said in a statement. "In a short five months, the new truck's earned its stripes with both loyal Toyota owners and those new to the brand."

Toyota said it sold 245,739 Toyota and Lexus vehicles in June, compared with 223,018 a year ago. For the first half of the year, it sold 725,219 vehicles.

Toyota-brand passenger cars recorded best-ever June sales of 128,239, an 8.9 percent increase over the same period last year. It was led by the Camry, with June sales of 46,630, up 12.5 percent over the same period last year.

Industrywide U.S. sales in June fell 3 percent to 1.4 million from 1.5 million in June 2006, according to Autodata. For the first half of the year, sales dropped 1.5 percent from 8.2 million from 8.4 million during the same period last year.

Honda said it sold 140,935 vehicles in June, up from 126,449 during the same month last year. Sales were led by the Civic and Fit small cars and the CR-V small sport utility vehicle.

Nissan sales jumped to 92,213 last month, up from 75,154 in June of 2006.

Ford, including its U.S. and European brands, sold 246,415 vehicles in the U.S. last month, compared with 268,179 during the same period last year.

The company said sales of its F-Series pickup slipped 0.5 percent. But its Focus small car rose 20 percent. Overall, Ford saw its car sales drop 24.6 percent, while truck sales rose 2.9 percent.

Ford reported daily rental sales were down 39 percent compared with a year ago. In the first half of the year, rental sales dropped 30 percent.

Ford has continued toward its goal of reducing rental car sales by 135,000 vehicles in 2007 from 2006 levels, dropping such sales by 89,000 during the first half of the year and 22,000 in the month of June.

"It more than accounts for the decline in Ford sales this month," said George Pipas, Ford's top sales analyst.

Nissan's sales were boosted by the redesigned version of the Sentra small car, which increased 26.9 percent.

Chrysler Group's passenger vehicle sales, which include the Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge brands, fell 1.4 percent to 183,347 units compared with 185,946 units in June 2006, while Mercedes sales fell 5.8 percent during the same period.

DaimlerChrysler sold a total of 202,936 vehicles in the U.S. last month, compared with 206,748 during the same period last year.

DaimlerChrysler said Chrysler car sales were up 55 percent because of an ad campaign highlighting fuel efficiency of its models. The company did not break out truck sales, which offset the gain.

Jeep brand sales were up 19 percent, led by the new four-door Wrangler, the company said.

The Associated Press reports unadjusted figures, calculating the percentage change in the total number of vehicles sold in one month compared with the same month a year earlier. Some automakers report percentages adjusted for sales days, which last month was 27 and in June 2006 was 26.