By the Numbers - June 2011: Summer Daze Edition

Japanese Brands Still Struggling, U.S. Brands Still Growing

U.S. auto sales last month were again marked by Japan's two largest automakers, Toyota and Honda, struggling to increase production levels following the country's debilitating earthquake and tsunami back in March. Sales for both automakers and their premium brands, Lexus and Acura, remain down sharply compared to June 2010, with all four brands plus Nissan's luxury arm, Infiniti, reporting the five worst sales figures in the U.S. last month. Nissan, however, bucked the trend with a 16.7% rise in sales.

America's Big 3 automakers, meanwhile, continued to post impressive sales gains while gobbling up market share from their Asian competitors. The Chrysler Group improved the most, with sales of its four brands ( Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram) increasing over 30% to 120,394 units in June – enough to move the Auburn Hills-based automaker past Toyota Motor Company for the month. Don't expect Chrysler to keep that ranking for long, however, as Toyota and Honda are well on their way to restoring production to pre-earthquake levels.

Other foreign makes, particularly Kia (41.18%) and Volkswagen (35.12%), posted aggressively positive sales number in June. Even smaller niche brands like Saab (49.54%) and Volvo (42.14%) have something to celebrate, though not as much as Mitsubishi, which posted the month's largest sales gain of 97.69%.

Here are some more interesting sales numbers on individual models for June 2011:

• Volkswagen Jetta sales up 88.3% over last year to an all-time record 17,105 units
• Mustang beat Camaro: 8,835 to 8,486
• Ford Explorer sales up 106.6% YTD
• Kia Optima sales up 573% YTD
• Chevrolet Cruze (24,896), Ford Focus (21,385), Hyundai Elantra (19,992), Toyota Corolla (18,872), Honda Civic (17,485)

*Brands and companies are displayed in descending order according to their percentage change in volume sales. There were 26 selling days in June 2011 versus 25 selling days in May 2010, so the change in monthly sales volume will be different than the change in average daily sales rate (DSR) for each brand/company. Also, brands are combined and reported as companies only if their sales figures are released jointly.