U.S. auto sales in June keep up strong recent pace

DETROIT (Reuters) - Most major automakers reported better-than-expected U.S. sales in June, capping a strong second-quarter comeback from a brutal winter, but some companies displayed signs of softening demand for their most popular models.

General Motors Co bucked Wall Street's low expectations and negative publicity over a flood of safety recalls, reporting a modest rise in U.S. sales in June.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected GM's sales to fall about 6 percent.

John Krafcik, president of car shopping site TrueCar.com, said consumers are suffering from recall "fatigue" and are tuning out the recent recall news onslaught from GM and other automakers.

He added that GM's sales remain strong in part because consumers focus on brand names like Chevrolet and Buick rather than the corporate name "General Motors."

Investors also showed faith in GM on Tuesday, sending its shares up 3 percent a day after the automaker's total amount of recalls for the half-year rose to 29 million vehicles.

Chrysler Group , Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T>, Nissan Motor Co <7201.T> and Hyundai Motor Co <005380.KS> also reported year-to-year increases. They all topped analysts' expectations, as did Ford Motor Co . Honda Motor Co <7267.T> sales barely missed expectations.

Ford said that U.S. industry auto sales were unchanged from a year ago, which is better than the 3 percent decline analysts had expected.

"Sales in the first half of 2014 indicate a steadily recovering industry, and we expect this pace to increase as we move into the second part of the year," said Bill Fay, Toyota Division group vice president and general manager.

GM delivered 267,461 new vehicles in June. Analysts had expected 247,767.

Ford sales fell 5 percent to 222,064 vehicles, but the company still beat the analysts' forecast of 217,007.

Chrysler had a 9 percent gain to 171,086, Toyota climbed 3 percent to 201,714 and Nissan was up 5 percent at 109,643.

Combined Hyundai-Kia sales increased 2 percent to 118,051 vehicles.

Honda sales declined 6 percent to 129,023.

U.S. June sales of the Volkswagen group, which includes Audi and Porsche, dropped 8 percent to 49,796.

Ford sales analyst Erich Merkle said the average transaction prices industrywide for pickup trucks were up more than $3,300 from a year ago. Pickup trucks are critical for the three domestic automakers because of their high profit margins.

Despite substantial discounts, Ford saw demand for its full-size F-series pickups - the best-selling vehicles in the industry - decline 11 percent to 60,560. The automaker has begun changing over production to a brand-new version of the F-series for model year 2015.

GM's Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups sold a combined 58,925 in June, up a fraction from a year ago, while Chrysler's Ram pickup was up 12 percent to 33,149.

Ford said sales of some of its more popular U.S. models slumped in June: Fiesta, down 31 percent; Taurus, down 30 percent; Mustang, down 17 percent, and Edge, down 29 percent.

At GM, the Chevrolet Cruze was down 21 percent, Impala down 17 percent and Malibu down 24 percent.

GM shares were up 2.9 percent at $37.36 on Tuesday afternoon while Ford shares were down 0.4 percent at $17.17.

(Additional reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit; editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Matthew Lewis)