• by Karl Greenberg , August 2, 2007

The automotive business was a mixed bag last month, with sustained high gasoline prices hovering around $3 per gallon helping to push sales of small cars and hybrids, while consumers' unalloyed passion for crossovers--car-based SUVs--helped soften the descent for some automakers.

Both GM--which reported $891 million in second-quarter earnings, and its third consecutive quarterly profit--and Ford, which also posted a second-quarter net profit of $750 million, saw double-digit declines last month. Ford sales were off 19% versus the month last year, and GM reported a 22% drop last month.

General Motors' car sales reportedly slipped 26%, with truck sales off 20% last month.

Ford, which reported monthly sales of 195,245, said it saw a 57% drop in sales to rental fleets, while sales to individual consumers were down 17%. A testament to the strength of the market for crossover vehicles, sales of Ford's crossovers increased 40%, with Ford selling 9,096 Edge crossovers and 2,870 MKX vehicles last month.

Chrysler Group reported an 8% decline, to 137,728 cars and trucks last month, with a 14% decrease in Dodge brand vehicles, which the company said was due to sell-down of current-year Dodge Caravan and Grand Caravan minivans. The new 2008 versions of the minivans, which have been redesigned with a new interior configuration and technical gadgetry like in-vehicle satellite television, go on sale this quarter.

Chrysler's Jeep brand benefited from a resurrection of the Wrangler marquee with the introduction last year of a four-door version, and compact SUVs. Jeep, up 4% last month, saw its fifth consecutive month of year-over-year sales gains from strong sales of the Jeep Compass crossover.

Soon-to-be-ex-sibling Mercedes-Benz sales saw a 0.2% up-tick in sales last month, which managed to garner the company record year-to-date sales of 136,826.

Toyota, Honda, Hyundai all saw sales drop last month. Toyota division saw sales drop 4.5%, to 196,917, while Lexus' sales were up 4.9%, to 27,141. Toyota division car sales slid 10.2%, although hybrid Prius was up 50.5% versus last July. Light trucks were up 4.2% driven by the new Tundra pickup and the RAV4 compact SUV.

Honda sales slid 3.2%, with Honda divisional sales down 1.2%. However, Honda's car sales, helped by the new subcompact Fit, rose 5.9%. Honda's CR-V crossover also saw a 35.3% increase, to 20,083 last month. Honda's Acura division sales decreased 17.7%, although the year-old MDX SUV saw a 7.3% increase in sales last month.

Hyundai slipped 8% last month to 43,511 vehicles sold, although its Sonata sedan and Entourage minivan both posted positive sales--up 5% and 16%, respectively, last month.

Except for its Versa compact--which accounted for 7,609 vehicles sold last month--and the new Altima and Altima Coupe, both of which pushed the company's July sales up 5.9%, sales were negative for most of its other models.