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DETROIT – U.S. car and truck sales showed signs of stabilizing in June after a year of sharp declines, but every major automaker except Honda Motor Co. reported lower sales than in May.
Still, year-over-year declines slowed for four of the six major carmakers last month, with Ford Motor Co. reporting the smallest drop in a year at 10.7 percent when compared with June 2008.
Even Chrysler, which emerged from bankruptcy protection early in June, saw its year-over-year sales decline shrink, and analysts say that’s among the signs that an auto industry slump that began with $4-a-gallon gasoline last summer could be leveling off.
“It is unlikely things will get any worse,” said Jesse Toprak, executive director of industry analysis for auto Web site Edmunds.com.
Factors such as a slowly improving economy and government incentives of up to $4,500 to trade in inefficient clunkers for new vehicles could lead to modest improvements in the second half of the year, he said.
And though Chrysler’s sales results were dismal, the figures were roughly in line with analyst estimates and reflect a company in a major transition following bankruptcy protection and with a new focus on more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Toprak said affordability and gas prices, which rose from $2.28 per gallon in May to $2.64 in June, boosted sales of sales of compact cars, hybrids and compact sport utility vehicles.
Families and consumers looking for larger vehicles are also leaning more toward minivans because of the practicality when compared to alternatives like low-gas-mileage SUVs, he said.
