DETROIT — After a year-long free fall in the American car market, the decline of sales slowed in June, offering hope to automakers that the bottom has been reached and more shoppers may slowly start returning to showrooms soon.
Sales were down 7.1 percent from May, which generally is a stronger sales month.
Overall, automakers sold 859,847 vehicles in June, a 28 percent drop from the same month last year, according to Autodata Corp.
Sales declines slowed for four of the six major carmakers, with Ford reporting the smallest drop, 10.7 percent. For several months, Ford and other companies have been reporting year-over- year declines of 40 percent or more.
Even Chrysler, which emerged from bankruptcy protection early in June, saw its decline shrink.
Analysts say that’s among the signs the auto industry’s slump that began with $4-per-gallon gasoline last summer could be leveling off.
“It is unlikely things will get any worse,” said Jesse Toprak, executive director of industry analysis for the auto website .
The slowly improving economy and government incentives of up to $4,500 to trade in inefficient clunkers for new vehicles could lead to modest improvements in the second half of the year, he said.
In anticipation of heightened traffic at dealers and higher sales later this year, Ford has increased its production order by 25,000 vehicles for the third quarter.
“We’re making steady progress,” Jim Farley, Ford’s vice president of marketing, said in a statement. “We remain grounded, however, given challenging industry and economic conditions.”
And while Chrysler’s sales results were dismal — 68,297 cars and trucks, many sold because of incentives of more than $4,800 per car — that’s about what analysts expected.
“At a time when they are emerging from bankruptcy and trying to reinvent themselves, it is not a huge surprise,” Toprak said.
At General Motors, sales slid 33.4 percent despite incentives and discounts on its Pontiac brand, while Toyota sales were off 32 percent. Honda saw a 30 percent decline because of extremely strong small-car sales in June 2008 when gasoline was above $4 per gallon. Nissan reported a narrower decline than in previous months, down 23 percent.
GM’s decline improved when compared with previous months even though it entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection June 1. GM plans to sell or close Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer and Saab to focus on four core brands: Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick.
