Jul 4, 2007 4 min read

By Jeff Karoub Associated Press Writer

DETROIT (AP) – Toyota’s U.S. vehicle sales jumped 10.2 percent in June while Ford’s sales dropped 8.1 percent from a year ago. But Ford’s totals still edged out Toyota for the month.

Toyota’s rise in June gave it record sales in the second quarter. The June decline for Ford came as it continued to wean itself from low-profit sales to rental car companies.

Among other automakers reporting Tuesday, Nissan’s U.S. sales rose 22.7 percent and DaimlerChrysler AG’s sales dropped 1.8 percent.

Toyota Motor Corp. 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.

Light-truck sales were up 11.9 percent, led by the redesigned Tundra full-size pickup.

“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.”

Ford Motor Co., 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.

DaimlerChrysler sold a total of 202,936 vehicles in the U.S. last month.

Chrysler Group’s passenger vehicle sales, which include the Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge brands, fell 1.4 percent compared with June 2006, while Mercedes sales fell 5.8 percent during the same period.

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.

Auto sales statistics show the market was shifting toward gas-thrifty compacts in May in record numbers, and some analysts were expecting that to continue in June with $3-a-gallon gas. Because of the continued homebuilding slump, truck sales were expected to be down overall in June.

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

Automotive Web site Edmunds.com expected Nissan to have a good month because of the Sentra, introduced to coincide with the spike in gas prices.

The small-car trend was expected to hurt the Detroit Three, which rely more on sport utility vehicles and trucks for sales. Asian and some European automakers have increased incentives on small cars, which also makes them more attractive.

Edmunds.com estimated Tuesday that the average U.S. automaker incentive was $2,483 per vehicle in June, up 3.9 percent from May and down 5.1 percent from June of last year. Of the major carmakers, Edmunds said only Toyota and Honda Motor Co. had higher incentives than they a year ago.

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.

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AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

DaimlerChrysler AG: http://www.daimlerchrysler.com

Ford Motor Co.: http://www.ford.com

General Motors Corp.: http://www.gm.com

Honda Motor Co.: http://www.honda.com

Nissan Motor Co.: http://www.nissanusa.com

Toyota Motor Corp.: http://www.toyota.com

AP-ES-07-03-07 1417EDT