Top US car makers General Motors and Ford today reported an increase of 5% in July sales from a year earlier, results they said pointed to a slow but steady turnaround for the battered sector in the third quarter.
The sales increase for Ford was lower than than some of the more bullish analysts had forecast and its shares dropped as much as 2.9%.
July sales for Hyundai rose 19% while sales for its affiliate Kia were up almost 21%. Nissan posted a sales rise of almost 15%.
Car executives said the early sales numbers for July eased concern that the industry could be tipping back toward recession after weaker-than-expected June sales results.
The stronger car sales figures for July came as indicators for US consumer spending and incomes for June were flat, data economists said pointed toward a still weak recovery.
GM said its results underscored the progress it has made as as a smaller and more focused company in the year since its emergence from a US government-funded bankruptcy.
GM bosses said the July sales results show its progress in managing inventories, reducing costly sales incentives and building momentum with a more balanced line-up and sales gains for both cars and trucks.
Sales of GM's four remaining brands - Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick - were up almost 25% from a year earlier in July. But including the brands GM dropped in its restructuring - Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Hummer - sales in July were down 3.8% from a year earlier.
GM said it was keeping its forecast for full-year US sales unchanged at 11.5 million to 12 million vehicles at the start of the second half.
Ford's sales were boosted by a nearly 40% gain for its F-Series pickup trucks - the best-selling vehicle in its lineup - and early sales of the Fiesta, its smallest car and newest entry.
The 5% July sales gain for Ford sales was for its Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands and excluded sales for Volvo. Ford this week completed a deal to sell the Volvo brand to China's Geely.
Ford, which gained sales momentum by avoiding the US government bailouts that GM and Chrysler took, has taken market share in its home market for 21 of the past 22 months.
Industrywide car sales are expected to top the 1 million vehicle mark in July in the US, a single-digit increase from both the previous month and the same month in 2009 when sales were lifted by the first week of the government's cash-for-clunkers sales incentives.
