July Class 8 truck sales in the U.S. were up 6.7% vs. June, but were down 5.1% compared to July 2002, according to figures compiled by Ward's Communications.
Ward's noted that 13,386 Class 8 trucks were sold in July, while 12,551 were sold in June and 14,095 were sold in July 2002.
Last July, Class 8 sales began to peak as truckmakers unloaded inventories of models with engines that were not compliant with EPA regulations that were going into effect in October.
According to Ward's, six manufacturers had better sales in July than they did in June, and three had better sales in July 2003 than in July 2002.
Freightliner, Sterling and Western Star all saw higher sales in July that they did the previous month and last July.
Freightliner's sales were up 8.5% vs. June and 5.7% vs. July 2002; Sterling's sales were up 18.9% compared to June and 35.4% against July 2002; and Western Star's sales were up 11.9% vs. June and 11.1% to last July.
