Automakers were expecting a slide in July as high gas prices continued to cut into sales of trucks and sport utility vehicles and new troubles in the auto leasing sector further wrecked consumers' confidence. July's seasonally adjusted sales rate - which shows what sales would be if they continued at the same pace for the full year - was 12.5 million vehicles, according to Autodata Corp. That's down from 17 million as recently as 2005.
Automakers expect things to get worse before they get better.
"We expect the second half of 2008 will be more challenging that the first half as economic and credit conditions weaken," Ford's marketing chief,iovanni, GM's executive director of global market and industry analysis, said if supply constraints remain at the same pace for the rest of this year, it would cost the industry about 300,000 vehicle sales, but as the year goes on and automakers adjust production, he expects that number to go down.
Toyota said Friday it is accelerating production of four-cylinder engines and boosting production of the subcompact Yaris and the small Corolla by 40,000 units through October. Honda Motor Co. said it will adjust production of the hot-selling Civic, while GM is adding shifts to make the fast-selling Chevrolet Malibu and Cobalt cars, and Ford is boosting production of the Focus.
But meanwhile, automakers are suffering. General Motors Corp. said its July sales plunged 26 percent, led by a 35 percent decline in sales of trucks and SUVs. Some car models showed strength, with Chevrolet Malibu sales jumping 79 percent from the same month a year ago. But even GM's car sales fell 12 percent as the company failed to keep up with demand for smaller models.
Earlier Friday, GM reported a $15.5 billion second-quarter loss, the third-worst quarterly performance in its history, largely due to North American sales losses and expenses from a massive restructuring plan.
Ford Motor Co. said its U.S. sales fell 15 percent compared with the same month a year ago. Its car sales were flat, while sales of Ford's trucks and SUVs continued their steep decline, falling 22 percent.
Ford's bright spot was the Focus, which saw sales rise 16 percent in July.
Despite its fuel-efficient lineup, Toyota Motor Corp. said its sales fell 12 percent last month, led by a 27 percent drop in truck and SUV sales. Sales of its Prius hybrid fell 8 percent as the Japanese company failed to keep up with growing demand for the fuel-efficient car.
Chrysler, whose lineup is more heavily tilted to trucks and SUVs than any other major automaker, said its sales fell 29 percent, with truck and SUV sales down 30 percent. Chrysler said that was partly due to cuts in low-profit sales to fleets, but even the company's most fuel-efficient model, the Dodge Caliber, saw sales slide 9 percent.
Still, Chrysler remained upbeat, saying retail sales - or sales not to fleets - rose between June and July. The privately held company also said Friday it earned $1.1 billion before taxes in the first half of the year and is ahead of its financial goals thanks to aggressive cost-cutting.
Even Honda, which has reported sales increases in the last few months as consumers flock to its fuel-efficient cars, said sales fell 2 percent in July. Honda's car sales were up 14 percent, but results were dragged down by a 22 percent drop in truck and SUV sales.
The Associated Press reports unadjusted auto sales 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. There were 26 sales days last month, two more than in July 2007.
