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DETROIT - Ford's U.S. sales fell 8.1 percent in June and DaimlerChrysler slipped 1.8 percent while Nissan's U.S. sales rose 22.7 percent from a year ago, the automakers said Tuesday.

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The decline for Ford Motor Co. came as it continued to wean itself from low-profit sales to rental car companies.

Ford, including its U.S. and European brands, sold 246,415 light vehicles in the U.S. last month, down from 268,179 a year ago.

Overall, Ford car sales dropped 24.6 percent, while truck sales rose 2.9 percent. The company said sales of its F-Series pickup slipped 0.5 percent. But its Focus small car rose 20 percent.

Ford reported daily rental sales were down 39 percent compared with a year ago. In the first half of the year, rental sales dropped 30 percent.

DaimlerChrysler AG sold a total of 202,936 vehicles in the U.S. last month.

Chrysler Group's passenger vehicle sales, which include the Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge brands, fell 1.4 percent compared with June 2006, while Mercedes sales fell 5.8 percent during the same period.

DaimlerChrysler said Chrysler car sales were up 55 percent because of an ad campaign highlighting fuel efficiency of its models. The company did not break out truck sales, which offset the gain.

Jeep brand sales were up 19 percent, led by the new four-door Wrangler, the company said.

Auto sales statistics show the market was shifting toward gas-thrifty compacts in May in record numbers, and some analysts were expecting that to continue in June with $3-a-gallon gas. Because of the continued homebuilding slump, truck sales were expected to be down overall in June.

Nissan Motor Co.'s sales were boosted by the redesigned version of the Sentra small car, which increased 26.9 percent.

Automotive Web site Edmunds.com expected Nissan to have a good month because of the Sentra, introduced to coincide with the spike in gas prices.

The small-car trend was expected to hurt the Detroit Three, which rely more on sport utility vehicles and trucks for sales. Asian and some European automakers have increased incentives on small cars, which also makes them more attractive.

Edmunds.com estimated Tuesday that the average U.S. automaker incentive was $2,483 per vehicle in June, up 3.9 percent from May but down 5.1 percent from last June. Of the big carmakers, Edmunds.com said only Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. had higher incentives than a year ago.

The Associated Press reports unadjusted 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, which last month was 27 and in June 2006 was 26.

 

I would say one downfall(I know there are many) is their customer support. People are hearing about warranty repairs getting denied from FordCo. I can honestly say I would never by another Ford. I personally haven't had problems knock on wood, but hearing horror stories that I have, that deters me. I personally believe that yes sh&% happens on any car any manufacturer, but it is how they take care of it when it happens is what makes me come back or not.

Another company I would never buy from, is Honda. My mom had a civic. There was a recall on the ECU program. The car would stall all the time. The dealer wouldn't fix it, and the main company wouldn't help either. It took 2 months to get fixed. That is a dangerous problem. It stalled a few times on the freeway. She got rid of it and got a Toyota Corrolla. Has over 100,000 miles with no problems. She needed a commuter car.

 

Service is the key Techman, thats for sure. Things happen and how its handled promptly is the results people will remember. I pay good money for a car and expect the Co. to back me 100%. That is true in all business. Customer service that is fair and prompt will lead to customer satisfaction.

 

Customer service is a dying concept. I'm not surprised that the fuel efficiency advertising campaign didn't help to over take the drop in sales, because it is very hard to tout fuel efficient models when you don't have any.[:@][sm=headbang.gif] Time for a new Neon.

 

I am confused?[sm=dontgetit.gif]

GM and Ford products on the comeback


Latest car introductions get high marks from Consumer Reports and J.D. Power; Chrysler still lags.


By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNNMoney.com staff writer
July 10 2007: 4:20 PM EDT
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The August issue of Consumer Reports magazine contains a rare, happy surprise for Detroit - a rave review of a General Motors SUV.

Consumer Reports is often seen as uniformly critical of vehicles from the Big 3 U.S.-based car makers. For example, not one domestic make was included in Consumer Reports' 2007 list of "Top 10 Picks," released in April.

But according to a Consumer Reports staffer, recent introductions from Ford and GM show that they are capable of making genuinely competitive vehicles.

In addition, J.D. Power surveys show that buyers appreciate the improvements in recent GM and Ford products, sometimes even more than Consumer Reports' car testers do.

With GM and Ford sales in decline, successes like these will be particularly important.

Consumer Reports is, by any measure, the single most influential magazine when it comes to the cars Americans actually buy. Much of the success of Toyota and Honda in the United States can be traced to their rise in Consumer Reports' rankings beginning in the 1970s. A 2006 Forester research study showed that car shoppers trust Consumer Reports more than any other source of automotive information.

The magazine has always maintained that it has no reason to favor or attack any particular company. Consumer Reports, published by the not-for-profit group Consumer's Union, does not run any paid advertisingandit doesn't write its reviews based on cars lent by manufacturers.

Its testers have simply not liked U.S. cars much in recent memory.

So it's all the more surprising to read this about GM's Saturn Outlook SUV: "With its roomy interior, the Outlook is an excellent alternative to a large, truck-based SUV for buyers who don't need the extra towing capacity or off-road ability of a truck. We also also liked the Outlook's agile handling, comfortable ride, and third-row seat that's hospitable for three adults."

In the placid language of Consumer Reports, that's high praise.

Jake Fisher, one of the car testers at Consumer Reports' Auto Test Center,credits GM for not just following what the Japanese car companies have done, something U.S. automakers have tended to do in the past.

With the Outlook and its cousins, the GMC Acadia and the Buick Enclave, GM has carved out a new niche: large SUVs that ride and handle like cars while getting relatively decent fuel economy - all without sacrificing interior space.

"I think Toyota and Honda are going to be in kind of a catch up mode," said Fisher.

This is part of a trend for GM and its cross-town competitor Ford, said Fisher. Ford and GM are "getting ride and handling right," he said, "and they're getting interiors right, which is a big change for GM."

Ford has recently had big scores with its Fusion sedan and its close cousins, Mercury Milan and Lincoln MKZ, said Fisher.

The Fusion earned the magazine's highest possible recommendation, signified by a check mark with a circle. Perhaps more surprisingly, the V6 version of the Fusion actually has better "predicted reliability," according to the Consumer Reports, than V6 versions of the Toyota Camry or Honda Accord.

For its part, GM has a serious contender in its Aura sedan, said Fisher, a car that bodes well for the upcoming 2008 Chevrolet Malibu due to roll out later this year. That car shares most of its engineering with the Aura. "GM's getting real serious about midsized cars," said Fisher.

Not everything these companies turn out now has been so successful. Consumer Reports is not particularly fond of the new Ford Edge, for example. "The handling is lackluster, fit and finish is s

 

Capitalist Propaganda

 

What has happened is that GM and Ford are now making cars to satisfy the magazines, Chrysler hasn't. I will agree that the Caliber and Compass could be better. The Nitro is very much love or hate as is the Sebring. What it comes down to is the magazine editors think that trucks should be judged to the same standards as cars and they hate real SUVs (Wrangler, GC, Durango, Liberty/Nitro, etc.) and love four-conventional door minivans aka crossover SUVs (Honda Pilot, Toyota Highlander, etc.).