The Ford motor company reported a 2.3% increase in July car sales in a sign that the crippled US car market was recovering with the aid of a government-funded car trade-in programme.
It was the first month Ford posted a year-over-year gain since November 2007 and the entire industry has been hit by nearly a year of double-digit losses, the car maker said.
Ford said retail sales at its core brands - Ford, Lincoln and Mercury - rose 9% to 118,197 vehicles. Total sales, including Volvo and low-margin fleet sales, rose 2.3% to 165,279.
Ford attributed its success to the vastly popular 'Cash for Clunkers' programme, which burned through $1 billion in its first week after spurring the sale of about 200,000 vehicles.
The scrappage scheme got fresh backing from US House of Representatives on Friday, when lawmakers voted for a $2 billion funding boost, but it must now gain approval from the Senate.
The sales gain marks the latest in a slew of more optimistic data from Ford, the only member of the Detroit Three automakers to have avoided bankruptcy. On July 23 it announced it had swung back into profitability in the second quarter.
The firm posted a net profit of $2.3 billion between April and June, due to cost cutting and a $3.4 billion once-off debt restructuring. That compared with a whopping $8.7 billion loss in the same period a year ago.
