Hybrid Car Review

In the month of July, Toyota outsold Ford for the first time in the number of US sales for the month.

In order, the top three sellers were:
1. General Motors
2. Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc.
3. Ford Motor Co.

Analysts had predicted the Detroit carmakers would post big drops in US sales for July (from last year) because last years sales were the biggest month of auto sales ever.

GM was down 22.5 percent, Ford Motor was down 34.3 percent, and the Chrysler group was down 37.4 percent.

If you remember, employee pricing deals were all the rage and the big three automakers were in the middle of a pricing war.

Toyota and Honda didn't join in on the fun last year. And this year, both companies had increases: Toyota Motor's sales totaled 241,826 units, up 11.7 percent from July 2005. For the year to date, Toyota's U.S. sales are up 10.1 percent from the same period last year.

American Honda's U.S. sales in July totaled 151,804 units, up 6.0 percent from July 2005. The automaker's year-to-date U.S. sales are up 6.9 percent from last year to 893,031 units.

Nissan, on the other hand, is having a tough first half. Sales were down 19.5 percent from last year (86,408 units sold). Nissan has dropped (year to date) 8 percent overall. But Nissan CEO Ghosn is predicting this year will be a year of two stories. A big drop in the first half, followed by a huge jump in the second with the arrival of new or redesigned products.

Overall, US auto sales in July were down 17.4 percent from July, 2005. Year to date sales are down 5.0 percent.