Detroit – U.S. automakers said Tuesday their July vehicle sales plummeted from last year, when heavy discounts fueled a near-record month for the auto industry. Most of the decline was in trucks and sport utility vehicles, the high-margin items on which the three companies depend.
But Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. saw sales increases – and credited their reputations for fuel efficiency and strength in small cars for boosting their appeal during a period of high gas prices.
General Motors Corp., the world’s largest automaker, said its sales fell 22.2 percent, with trucks falling 31.2 percent and cars inching down 2.7 percent.
At Ford Motor Co., sales of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles dropped 35.2 percent from a year earlier as trucks sank 44.8 percent, while cars slipped 6.7 percent. Sales of F-Series pickup trucks, long the country’s best-selling vehicle, skidded 45.6 percent.
DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group said its sales fell 37.4 percent, with truck sales off 40 percent and car sales off 23.5 percent. That change happened despite the fact that Chrysler, alone among automakers, has revived the employee price promotion that fueled sales last year.
Chrysler announced it would extend the discount program through August.
Toyota’s sales shot up 11.7 percent, with cars jumping 19.8 percent and trucks up 1.3 percent. The company outsold Ford by more than 17,000 vehicles.
Honda, meanwhile, said its July sales rose 6 percent, with cars up 5.4 percent and trucks up 6.8 percent.
