WSJ:Auto Sales Rise; Foreign Brands Gain Ground

The Wall Street Journal reported that American consumers jumped on carmakers' hot deals, putting industry sales on track for the third-best year ever. But despite costly discounts, Detroit's Big Three continued to lose ground to Asian and European rivals. Overall, U.S. car and light truck sales totaled 1,625,341 vehicles in June, up 0.3 percent from a year earlier. General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. said June sales fell 3 percent and 6.6 percent respectively, despite a variety of aggressive discount deals and, in GM's case, an innovative program to encourage current lessees to trade in their vehicles early for a new GM model. DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group pushed up its sales by 1 percent overall, in part because of a sharp jump in sales for its minivans and an early surge for the new Jeep Liberty small sport-utility vehicle. But as consumers shrug off unemployment worries and head to showrooms, more are turning to Asian and European brands despite ever-larger discounts from Detroit's domestic brands. Toyota Motor Corp. reported sales shot up 20 percent and sales at Honda Motor Co. rose 7 percent in the U.S. In June, Toyota's share of the U.S. market grew to 9.8 percent, up 1.6 percentage points from a year ago. <http://www.wsj.com>.