Better Auto Sales

DETROIT — After a yearlong 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.

Still, 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 Motor Co. reporting the smallest drop of 10.7 percent. For many 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 that 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 Edmunds.com.

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 — only 68,297 cars and trucks, many sold because of incentives of more than $4,800 per car.

"At a time when they are emerging from bankruptcy and trying to reinvent themselves, it is not a huge surprise,” Toprak said.

Affordability and rising fuel prices — from $2.28 per gallon in May to $2.64 in June — boosted sales of sales of compact cars, some hybrids and larger crossover vehicles.

Sales of fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles that run on gasoline and electricity were mixed.

Analysts had speculated that June sales, when adjusted for seasonal variances and multiplied to calculate an annual selling rate, would exceed 10 million for the first time this year.

But sales once again fell just shy of that mark at 9.7 million for June. That’s a huge reduction from more than 16 million as recently as 2007.


by the associated press