General Motors Corp. has reported Tuesday a 24 percent drop in June sales, becoming the automaker with the biggest monthly decline as U.S. automakers continue to lose share and overall vehicle sales because of the surging gas prices and a weak housing market.
GM's Detroit neighbors also had sales going down. Ford's sales were down 11 percent, while Chrysler's fell 5 percent. Both declines by the loss-making Detroit-based automakers proving true the expectations of some analysts as the industry closed out a weak second quarter.
While sales for Detroit-based automakers slipped for June, rival import automakers reported a positive turnout with Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. all gaining ground after taking the unusual step of increasing spending on showroom discounts.
Sales for Nissan- also maker of top of the line , were also up several notches, in fact, to an industry-leading 18 percent. Fellow Japanese automakers Toyota and Honda reported gains of 6 percent and 7 percent, respectively.
Overall, the first-half sales were down 1.5 percent for the industry. Toyota however, bucked the downtrend with a 9 percent gain over the six-month period, putting it ahead of Ford for the U.S. market's No. 2 spot after outselling GM in the passenger cars segment.
Toyota's aggressive discounting of its new Toyota Tundra -- offering zero-percent financing and cash rebates on its all-new full-size pickup truck in June and causing sales to double, has successfully rattled its rival automakers in Detroit.
According to industry data, GM paid the price for being the only major automaker to throttle back on incentive spending compared with May. GM sales analyst Paul Ballew attributed GM's shortfall to lost sales as its own all-new Silverado truck went head-to-head against the heavily subsidized Tundra.
Toyota for its part said that playing hardball with Tundra pricing was not a move to signal a shift for a company better known for controlling supply and allowing hot-selling models like the hybrid Prius to command a premium, but rather, was just a response to a tough market.
Surging gasoline prices at $3 per gallon in the United States, sales gains for passenger cars, and the shift by American consumers to more-fuel-efficient car-based crossover vehicles over light trucks, also did not help make things better for the troubled Detroit automakers. These factors however, greatly favored the Japanese car makers.
Nissan, for instance, recorded a 76 percent jump in sales of its Altima sedan. Honda saw a 34 percent jump in sales of its competing Civic.
