Ford’s July Sales Increase 2.3%, First Monthly Increase in Two Years

July’s car sales numbers are in and for the first time in two years, Ford posted an increase over July 2008’s sales. Ford was the only automaker of the Big Three that didn’t take federal bailout money and didn’t file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Ford says the sales gain is due to the government’s CARS rebate program and the introduction of its new, fuel-efficient vehicles.

“We had another strong month in progress before the ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program started,” said Ken Czubay, Ford vice president, U.S. marketing, sales and service.

“Our products, our dealers and our advance preparation enabled us to leverage the program and drive traffic and sales to another level. In addition, we achieved a sales increase even though we decreased incentive spending in an increasingly competitive environment.”

Chrysler surprisingly didn’t do that bad. The automaker was down only 9% compared to July 2008 and was up 30% compared to June 2009.

Subaru did the best, with an increase of 34% compared to the same month last year. Subaru said July was its best sales month ever. Yet again, Suzuki did the worst, with a 57% decline versus last year.

July 2009 sales:

GM: down 19.4%

Ford: up 2.3%

Chrysler: down 9%

Toyota: down 10.8%

Lexus: down 16.5%

Honda: down 15.8%

Acura: down 32.5%

Mercedes-Benz: down 21.7%

smart USA: down 44.6%

Nissan: down 24.8%

Infiniti: down 23.3%

BMW: down 32%

MINI: down 3.8%

Porsche: down 51.6%

Volkswagen: up 0.7%

Mazda: down 15.1%

Hyundai: up 12%

Suzuki: down 57%

Kia: up 4.5%

Subaru: up 34%

Mitsubishi: down 53.5%

Audi: down 5.8%