Ford Motor Co, the U.S. automaker said on Sunday it had sold more cars in the month of July than the same period a year before, signifying the first year-over-year jump for the auto maker in almost two years.

Ford sales specialist, George Pipas said that a surge in sales at the end of the month was made possible by the US government’s multi-billion-dollar "cash for clunkers" car trade-in plan.

The cash-for-clunkers program offers customers up to $4,500 for buying a new car when an older car is traded-in for a more fuel efficient car. 

Ken Czubay, chief of Ford U.S. sales said that increased sales in July were significant to both, Ford as well as the economy.

Ken Czubay further said, "We don't know about the others, but we do know that we are going to have an increase year over year."

The cash for clunkers scheme burned through 1 billion dollars in the first week after spurring the sales of over 222,000 vehicles.

The program got fresh support from US House of Representatives, which voted for extra 2 billion dollars funding to boost the program.

It may be noted here that US auto-manufacturers sold approximately 13.2 million vehicles in the US in 2008, down from 16 million in 2007. However, first-half of 2009 saw further drop in sales to an annualized rate of 9.1 million in the month of Feb.

July also became the ninth month in the past ten months to witness a gain in market share.

The program assisted car-makers emerge from recession, while helped environment by getting old polluting motor vehicles off the road. 

In the recent trading, shares of Ford closed at $8.