US automakers saw a sharp rise of auto sales in August due to the Cash for Clunkers program that encouraged consumers to trade in old vehicles for more fuel-efficient new ones, sources of US automakers said Tuesday.

General Motors Co. the largest US automaker which emerged from federal bankruptcy court July 10, sold 246,479 vehicles last month, a 30 percent increase from July.

GM announced Tuesday that it had lowered its 2010 industry forecast to 11.5 million to 12 million vehicles, down from a projection of 12.5 million.

The monthly sales increase has depleted some dealer stock and GM inventories. GM ended August with 379,000 vehicles in stock, down 49 percent from a year earlier.

As a result, some GM dealers will be going out of business earlier than agreed to as part of the automaker's restructuring.

GM is cutting its dealership ranks from about 6,000 to as few as 3,600 by late next year, which will result in significant savings for the new GM.

Ford Motor Co. saw sales jump 17 percent in August, a month marked by a buying frenzy created by the "clunkers" program. The increase follows an uptick in July, giving the automaker back-to-back monthly sales increases in a year marked by abnormally low volumes of vehicles being purchased.

Some of Ford's more fuel-efficient vehicles had a record number of purchases in August, including the Ford Focus, Fusion Escape, Edge and Flex, as well as the Mercury Mariner. The F-150 full-size pickup also saw sales increase 13 percent.

Ford has left its conservative industry forecast unchanged at 10.5 million to 11 million for the year, said George Pipas, Ford sales analyst.

Chrysler Group LLC posted a 15 percent drop in US sales in August compared to a year before, the company reported. August sales of new vehicles fell to 93,222 from 110,235 during the same month last year. They increased 5 percent from July of 2009.

(Xinhua News Agency September 2, 2009)