Detroit’s Big Three automakers showed higher domestic auto sales for the month of June. Both General Motors and Chrysler saw double-digit increases. Ford’s gains weren’t as impressive, but they were still respectable at 7 percent. Even some foreign automakers got in on the action.

In fact, Toyota may very well have experienced the most dramatic jump in sales. While June was 12 percent off from May, the Japanese company saw a massive 60 percent increase. Considering the fact that Toyota has many domestic construction resources, these numbers are also good for US economists.

New auto sales among American buyers in the month of June were essentially expected to jump 21 percent from the past year. Nevertheless, some market analysts expected those same figures to fall by 4.7 percent over the previous month. Automakers have been seemingly pretty pleased with the gains, though, and many of them are posting figures that should make investors rather happy.

Ford sold 207,759 vehicles during June in the United States. They only sold 194,114 in June 2011. While that’s 3.9 percent below the May 2012 total of 216,267, it’s still rather impressive. Motor vehicles that carry the Ford marquee saw sales increases of 7.2 percent. Lincoln increased 2.5 percent.

GMC sales in general were up 15 percent. Chevy saw a 15 percent jump of its own. Buick’s 27 percent gains were extremely impressive, though Cadillac sales were only up by 12 percent. Dealer inventory in the United States was at 700,927 motor vehicles, which actually marks a 1 percent increase over the previous month.

Strangely enough, all this good news from various automakers doesn’t seem to be quite good enough for Ford. That firm actually expects to lose around $570 million in overseas sales. This has a great deal to do with the poor economic conditions in Europe.

The European debt crisis is everywhere in the news today, and sadly it reared its ugly head in Ford’s figures. Fortunately, the strong results in North America should help them stay afloat. Ford is still expected to make a profit this quarter, and their Ford Credit auto-lending unit should also keep the company above water.

The posting of April sales is a continued indicator that United States auto makers are experiencing a recovery since the bailout. Ford Motor Co. enjoyed approximately a 25% increase in sales from April of 2010. GM sales were up approximately 6.4% and they posted a first quarter profit of over $3.2B. Though Toyota Motor Company has grappled with safety recalls, they posted 24% increased sales. Several other companies are seeing the same significant gains holding over from prior months.

Much of this success is attributed to the shifting domestic buyer’s taste in automobiles. The industry heard consumers clearly when they began clamoring for small, fuel-efficient vehicles. As such, several are in production and continue to be produced while medium to larger-scale automobiles are being discontinued.

Incentives from manufacturers were a major catalyst in helping to improve sales across the board. As sales have risen, manufacturers have begun dialing back quite a few of their incentive programs to try and push sales to a more normalized fashion. Sales are decreasing steadily from March when many of these incentive programs were at their peak to bring in wary customers.

Studies conducted by auto industry researching website Edmunds.com showed a reduction of nearly 5% in incentives as automakers tried to rein in their spending. Many good bargains are still available though incentives are changing. GM posted an approximate expense of $3,270 per vehicle on incentives. Though this number is quite high, the average was skewed by incentives offered on discontinued models to simply get them moved and on the road. Honda Motor Co. spent approximately $1,790, setting a new record high in incentives offered on Honda automobiles.

Increase in sales is good news for the industrial sector who is currently witnessing a void of qualified workers in quite a few markets. Manufacturers are gearing up for production of new designs, moving into roomier office buildings, and making regular payments on the government bailout they received that rescued them from bankruptcy.

Though analysts feel that it is too early to say where the recovery will ultimately lead manufacturers, it is clear that the Big Three of Detroit and other manufacturers were not ready to surrender to foreign competitors. Their coming fight will be to reclaim lost market share and get consumers back in more of their vehicles.

In an effort to downsize their corporation, G.M. announced the selling of two product lines. The Hummer and Saturn lines are being looked at by two different corporations for a possible buyout.

A tentative deal is in the works with the Chinese based Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. for the Hummer line. The company mainly deals in the heavy equipment arena for road construction, and this will be their first dealings in the auto sector. The sale of this product will most likely save more than 3000 much needed jobs in the United States, as the Hummer will still be produced state side until 2010.
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