GM sales plummet

DETROIT — General Motors Corp. said Tuesday its U.S. light vehicle sales plunged 21.3 percent in June, while Toyota Motor Corp. reported its vehicle sales jumped 10.2 percent.

GM joined the other Detroit Three automakers reporting decreases, while Toyota and its Japanese counterparts saw sales rise compared with the same period last year.

For the month, Toyota was edged out as the No. 2 U.S. auto seller by Ford Motor Co., whose U.S. sales fell 8.1 percent. DaimlerChrysler AG’s U.S. sales dropped 1.8 percent, while Nissan’s rose 22.7 percent and Honda Motor Co. rose 11.5 percent, the automakers said.

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 more than doubled.

“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 Corp. 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.

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.