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Ford's overall sales rose 7 percent. The Escape small SUV posted its best month ever after a new version of the popular vehicle went on sale. The sales were welcome news to investors, who have beaten down GM and Ford shares in recent days over losses in Europe. Ford's stock climbed 2 percent to close at $9.60, while GM's stock jumped 6 percent to $20.67. Toyota's sales rose 60 percent for the month while Honda's climbed 49 percent, but that wasn't surprising. Last year, both companies had little inventory at U.S. dealerships because of the earthquake in Japan. Now, they're taking back sales that their rivals gained last year. The Chevrolet Cruze, for example, was the top-selling car in the country June 2011, but its sales dropped 24 percent last month. Sales of its Japanese rivals, the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla, jumped more than 40 percent each. Sales would have been slower if carmakers hadn't sold so many vehicles to government, commercial and daily rental fleets, says Jesse Toprak, vice president of market intelligence for the car buying site TrueCar.com. A little more than a third of all the cars GM sold went to fleets, up substantially from last year. Ford also sold a third of its vehicles to fleets, but that was about the same percentage as last year. GM said that was just the way some sales were timed, and its fleet sales should fall this month. Toprak thinks that even if sales soften a little, they're still on track to reach 14.4 million by the end of the year. That's better than last year's 12.8 million, and it's far better than the 30-year low of 10.4 million during the recession in 2009. "This is a healthy and sustainable rate of recovery," he said. Other automakers reporting Tuesday: Nissan's sales rose 28 percent. Sales of the new Versa mini car and Quest minivan more than doubled. Volkswagen sales rose 34 percent on strong demand for two redesigned cars: the Beetle and the Passat. Hyundai's sales rose 8 percent. Sales of the new Accent jumped 57 percent, while sales of the luxury Equus sedan rose 61 percent.
[Associated
Press;
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