U.S. sales on light vehicles improved 1.5% year over year to 8.65 million units in the first half of 2016. It's a new record for first half of the year sales results. Seeing that sales increased 2.5% year over year to 1.5 million units in June 2016, was unexpected considering all of the negative surveys and predictions. We can't say that auto sales are on the right way from now on, because of seasonally adjusted annualized rate basis declined to 16.68 million units in the month from 17.46 million units in May 2016 and 17.01 million units in June 2015.
It's important to notice that product segments like trucks and utility vehicles recorded higher sales in June, but even they couldn't save the sales this month, and they still had to decline a bit. The American company General Motors was the leader in terms of sales volume for this month, it means our patriotic cars are on a way to finally be appreciated as they deserve. There are six major American and Japanese automakers with best results this month in U.S. and Nissan Motor Co. is the one which recorded the maximum year over year sales improvement in the month.
GM recorded 255,210 vehicle sales this month, retail sales improved 1.2%, commercial delivers fell 7%. Sales in the first half of 2016 declined 4.4% year over year to 1.44 million units. Ford Motor Co. reported a 6.4% increase in U.S. sales from the previous year. Sales on the Lincoln models advanced 5.8% year over year to 8,809 units in a month. Ford's sales improved 6.4% year over year to 231,300 vehicles. In the first half of 2016, Ford's sales increased 4.6% to 1.35 million units.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles recorded a 7% year-over-year rise in sales to 197,073 vehicles in June 2016. It's the bets June sale sof the brand since 2005. Sales increased 6% year over year to 1.15 million units in the half of 2016. Honda in the first half of the year recorded a 5.2% year over year increase in sales to 792,355 cars. Toyota's sales dropped 5.6% year over year to 198,257 units this month. Lexus' sales fell 1.3% to 25,779 cars. It's sales declined 2.7% to 1.2 million units in the first half of the year.
Nissan has reported a 13.1% year over year rise in sales to a record 140,553 vehicles in June. In the first half of the year its sales increased 8.4% to 798,114 units. U.S. car sales are expected to improve in the second half of the year, however the pressure to maintain the attractive incentives and deals may strain the margins for automakers. Many analysts still believe that auto sales are reaching its plateau, which is resulting in a slow growth.
