July 2014: Hot Hot Heat Edition

We'd like to take this moment to give Chrysler, in particular, a shout-out for the month of July, 2014. Not only was it the brand's best July since 2005, it also marks the 52nd straight month that the automaker improved sales over the same month a year prior. The Pentastar has special reason to be proud of its Jeep brand, which has remained very near the top of our sales charts in sales percentage growth all year.

While we're on the subject of positive streaks, our second shout-out for the month goes to Subaru, which recorded the best month of sales in company history. The only real dog of the month in the Subaru kennel was the Tribeca, with just 43 of them sold last month; sales were led last month, as has been the case for as long as we can recall, by the Forester, followed by the Outback. In other news, Toyota/Lexus surged past Ford/Lincoln last month to climb into second place in overall sales.

It wasn't a great month for all automakers, though. Jaguar sales were down again, though the automaker itself was propped up by its corporate sibling, Land Rover; Honda and Acura combined to post a sales decline of nearly four percent for the month; Cadillac stood as the only brand in GM's portfolio to post a sales decline – though it's certainly worth noting that GM sales were again up overall in spite of its massive spate of recalls this year – and it would have looked even worse for Caddy if not for the boost it got from its new Escalade. But the biggest loser of July, 2014, again looks to be Volkswagen. While the GTI posted a nice increase in sales, nothing else looked very positive for VW last month, leading to a sales decline of nearly 15 percent. Hey, at least the German automaker managed to sell a single, solitary and awfully lonely Routan last month...

The SAAR, or seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales, is once again forecast at well over 16 million for the full year. Analysts and automakers vary on their estimates, with some projections closer to 17 million units than 16 million. We'll keep tracking that information as the year progresses.

If you just can't get enough monthly sales data, feel free to peruse past sales recaps by checking out our By The Numbers category here.