Gm sales up while Toyota sales down-US sales

Auto analyst's had long written obituaries for the GM pick-ups and suv's and if they had it their way americans would have switched over to Toyota and this would perhaps have been the end of the road for GM,after all they produce gas guzzlers and toyota produce small fuel efficient cars but heres something to consider,

Car sales have dropped while sales of Suv's and pickup have gained so what's with all the talk about fuel-efficieny and hybrids and save the planet stuff,

No does not mean all is bad for toyota,their tundra truck has done really well and they have beaten Ford.

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Mark LaNeve, GM's vice president for North America Vehicle Sales, said: " Bucking the trend in the industry, we were able to post healthy sales results in August. When combining retail sales with our growing commercial business, our sales were up when compared with last August. Importantly, last month was our third-best retail month of the year."

"With the double-digit decline in daily rental sales so far this year, and an overall market that remains challenging and competitive, we continue to stabilize our retail share and pricing in the market."

GM said sales of cars and light trucks stood at 385,529 in August, up from 363,521 a year earlier. Sales of light trucks rose 17% to 241,013, while car sales fell 7.8% to 144,516.

Generally, analysts had expected U.S. light-vehicle sales to be down to roughly flat from a year ago. The slowdown in the home-construction market has been particularly tough on Detroit's lucrative pickup-truck sales.

Toyota blamed the credit crunch dampening consumer confidence for its drop in U.S. sales in August. Still, the company continued to gain ground on Ford in the battle for the title of No. 2 U.S. auto maker.

The Japanese auto maker, said it sold 233,471 vehicles in August, compared with 240,178 a year ago. Year-to-date, Toyota's sales trail Ford by 3,626.

Ford, which has been slashing fleet sales, sold 218,332 cars and light trucks last month, down 14%. It was the second straight month in which Toyota outsold Ford.

The housing weakness also affected Toyota. The company's car sales dropped 6% last month to 135,507, while light-truck sales increased 2% to 97,964 amid a 69% surge by the Tundra pickup. Toyota's SUV sales dropped 6.7%.

Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe acknowledged last week that Toyota's U.S. sales have been affected somewhat by the subprime-mortgage debacle. Toyota rakes in about half its annual profit from the U.S., the world's largest auto market.

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