Reversing the slowdown in US auto sales in June, the July figures indicated an ‘uneven’ recovery, with a 5 percent overall increase in auto sales in the country – while Hyundai and Nissan turned out to be the biggest gainers; sales at Toyota and Honda witnessed a plunge.

July sales at Hyundai jumped by 19 percent; and those at Nissan increased 15 percent. General Motors (GM) and Chrysler also reported a 5 percent gain in sales each, during the month; while the sales at Ford increased 4.6 percent, after factoring it Volvo, which was taken over by the Geely Group of China.

Noting that, by and large, the figures reported for July are “a positive sign,” said Jeff Schuster, an analyst for JD Power and Associates, said: “But I don't think that says everything is back on track. We are going to see this volatility and up-and-down movement for some time.”

Expressing a similar opinion, Don Johnson, VP of US sales at GM, though the July sales numbers do not show that the economy has “incredible strength,” they do indicate that “the recovery is still on track.” Johnson also added that it had taken several months to spot some kind of a trend.

With the analysts largely believing that the US automakers have apparently survived the worst of the industry downturn, Schuster elaborated that the domestic automakers were clearly in a “much more positive position” as compared to their situation a year back.