June Car Sales Down - Good News for Buyers

Although sales are up compared to last year, June's numbers show a slowdown when compared to the past few months, suggesting that economic troubles are far from over. This is good news for car buyers since dealers will be more desperate to sell vehicles over the coming months.

Current sales, from January to present: General Motors leads with over a million vehicles sold, followed by Ford at over 945,000, then Toyota at 846,000.

Chrysler is showing improvement (35% increase over last year) with strong sales for the Jeep Wrangler, Chrysler minivans, Dodge Avenger, Charger, and Challenger.

Ford continues strong with a 28% increase over last year. Demand for the Ford F-Series trucks, Explorer, Mustang, and Taurus all posted solid gains.

GM is also showing positive signs with a 36% increase. The core brands (Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC) have six-straight months of over 20 percent gains.

Honda posted a six percent increase over 2009, while Hyundai continues to post gains with a 35% increase over last year.

Nissan and Infiniti sales climbed over 10 percent over last June with gains across the Infiniti lineup.

The Subaru Forester continues to be popular with a 25-percent increase over last year. The new Outback also posted an increase of 76 percent. Year-to-date, Subaru is up 35 percent.

Toyota sales were 6 percent higher than last year, led by the Corolla, Camry, and RAV4.

As summer heats up and model-year winds down, we'll see if incentives and rebates lure more car buyers into showrooms.