Automakers Burned in July

Updated from 12:46 p.m. EDT

Ford(F Quote) and General Motors (GM Quote) may have wowed Wall Street with their second-quarter results, but their July U.S. sales provided a harsh reminder of Detroit's ongoing battle to attract auto buyers.

GM reported an 18% plunge in U.S. sales on a day-rate basis for the month, while Ford recorded a 19% decline. Both were hit by efforts to decrease their low-margin business with rental-car agencies, but retail sales were weak as well.

At GM, July vehicle sales slid to 320,935 units from 410,332 last year. There were 24 selling days this past July, compared with 25 last year.

Car sales dropped 23% to 119,886 cars, while truck sales declined 16% to 201,069 vehicles.

"We expected the month would provide a tough year-over-year comparison since in July 2006 industry sales were exceptionally strong and we were aggressively liquidating past model year inventories," said Mark LaNeve, vice president, GM North American Sales, Service and Marketing.

Ford sold 195,245 vehicles for the month, compared with 241,339 a year earlier.

Sales of trucks fell 11% to 135,157 vehicles. Car sales tumbled 33% to 60,088 units.

Sales to rental companies dropped 57% in the month. But overall retail sales were weak as well; Ford said sales to individual customers were down 17%.

Ford's Jaguar brand recorded the biggest percentage sales decline, with sales plummeting 43% to 1,136 units. Ford recently confirmed that it is exploring a sale of Jaguar, as well as Land Rover and potentially Volvo.