Edmunds.com Forecasts July Auto Sales: Big Decrease after Record Sales Last Year

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--July 27, 2006--This month's new vehicle sales (including fleet sales) are expected to be 1.54 million units, a 15 percent decrease from July 2005, according to Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive information.

This July had 25 selling days, one less than last July did. When adjusted for this difference, sales are down about 11 percent from July 2005. (The chart below sets forth other unadjusted and adjusted comparisons.)

                     Change from July 2005       Change from July 2005
                     (Adjusted for less          (Unadjusted for less
                     selling days)               selling days)
Chrysler             -17%                        -20%
Ford                 -23%                        -26%
GM                   -18%                        -21%
Honda                 1%                         -3%
Nissan               -20%                        -23%
Toyota                9%                          5%
Industry Total       -11%                        -15%

"The significant decrease in year-over-year sales was not startling, since July 2005's sales of over 1.8 million vehicles was the best month in automotive history -- due to last year's domestic employee purchase price promotions," said Jesse Toprak, Executive Director of Industry Analysis for Edmunds.com. "We expect the rest of 2006 to fare better than 2005, since we won't have a repeat of last fall's sales decline after the end of the summer promotions."

The combined monthly U.S. market share for Chrysler, Ford and General Motors (GM) domestic nameplates is estimated to be 56.8 percent in July, down from 62.4 percent in July 2005 and from 57.3 percent in June 2006.

Edmunds.com predicts Chrysler will sell 191,000 units in July, up four percent compared to June 2006. This would result in a new car market share of 12.5 percent for Chrysler in July, down from 13.3 percent in July 2005 but up from 12.4 percent in June 2006.

Edmunds.com predicts Ford will sell 266,000 units in July, up about one percent compared to June 2006. This would result in a market share of 17.3 percent of new car sales in July for Ford, down from 20.0 percent in July 2005 and from 17.7 percent in June 2006.

Edmunds.com predicts GM will sell 416,000 units in July, up two percent compared to June 2006. GM's market share is expected to be 27.0 percent of new vehicle sales in July, down from 29.1 percent in July 2005 and from 27.3 percent in June 2006.

Edmunds.com predicts Honda will sell 138,000 units in July, up nine percent from June 2006. Its market share is expected to be 9.0 percent in July, up from 8.0 percent in July 2005 and from 8.5 percent in June 2006.

Edmunds.com predicts Nissan will sell 83,000 units in July, up ten percent from June 2006. Nissan's market share is expected to be 5.4 percent, down from 6.0 percent in July 2005 but up from 5.0 percent in June 2006.

Edmunds.com predicts Toyota will sell 227,000 units in July, up five percent from June 2006. Toyota's market share is expected to be 14.7 percent in July, up from 12.0 percent in July 2005 and from 14.4 percent in June.

About Edmunds.com, Inc.

Edmunds.com is the premier online resource for automotive information. Its popular consumer product, Edmunds.com True Market Value(R) pricing, is relied upon by millions of people seeking market-reflective valuations for new and used vehicles. The company also supplies content for the auto sections of NYTimes.com, AOL, CNN.com and About.com; provides weekly data to Automotive News; and delivers monthly data reports to Wall Street analysts. In addition, Edmunds.com publishes Inside Line (www.insideline.com), a free high-speed online magazine for auto enthusiasts, and CarSpace (www.carspace.com), an automotive lifestyle social networking Web site for anyone with an interest in automobiles. Edmunds.com was named "Best Car Research Site" by Forbes ASAP, has been selected by consumers as the "Most Useful Web Site" according to every J.D. Power and Associates New Autoshopper.com Study(SM), was ranked first in the Survey of Car-Shopping Web Sites by The Wall Street Journal and was rated No. 1 in Keynote's study of third-party automotive Web sites. The company is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, and maintains a satellite office in suburban Detroit.