June auto sales show stability, led by Ford

The automaker also plans to terminate dealerships in its reorganization, but has favored a longer-term strategy of allowing the ties to expire gradually by October 2010.

Looking ahead, automakers and industry analysts expect a modest bump in U.S. auto sales from the "cash for clunkers" program signed into law last month, which begins to gear up later in July.

Analysts expect market distortions from the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies to begin to dissipate in the second half of 2009. They expect new U.S. government incentives to trade low-mileage vehicles for new cars to provide a moderate sales bounce in the latter half of the year.

(Reporting by David Bailey and Kevin Krolicki, editing by Matthew Lewis)