U.S. auto sales fall amid slowing economy, high gas prices.

The CBS Evening News (7/1, lead story, 3:15, Couric) reported, “The American auto industry is feeling tonight like it just got run over.” Tuesday’s figures “show[ed] General Motors (GM) down more than 18 percent in June, Toyota down more than 21 percent, Ford nearly 28 percent. And Chrysler, sales plunged nearly 36 percent.”

NBC Nightly News (7/1, lead story, 3:30, Williams) attributed the fall in auto sales to “the combination of a down economy and sky-high gas prices.”

ABC World News (7/1, story 2, 1:15, Gibson) called the figures “terrible” and “the worst numbers in 15 years” for the automakers.

On the front page of its Business Day section, the New York Times (7/2, C1, Vlasic) adds, “With the drop last month of more than 18 percent, automakers now expect to sell well below 15 million new vehicles this year,” which is “far fewer than the norm this decade of more than 16 million vehicles a year.”

On the front page of its Business section, the Washington Post (7/1, D1, Weissmann) notes that “Toyota’s surprising falloff — some believed that the company was poised this month to overtake [GM] as the top automaker — strongly suggests that the auto industry’s problems are spreading beyond Detroit’s troubled Big Three.” Each of them “is restructuring to reduce the crippling costs of worker pensions and health benefits.”

“In May, GM saw its lead over Toyota shrink to fewer than 10,000 vehicles.” Although “[s]ome analysts had expected Toyota to surpass GM in June monthly sales,…strong sales of cars such as the compact Chevy Cobalt and midsize Chevy Malibu, up 22 percent and 73 percent, respectively, helped hold off the Japanese giant,” the Los Angeles Times (7/2, Bensinger) noted.

According to the Wall Street Journal (7/2, B3, Linebaugh, et al.), “U.S. auto sales tumbled” in June, which is “typically a strong month,” with “sales of trucks and sports-utility vehicles continu[ing] to fall and automakers [running] short of the fuel-efficient vehicles like compacts and hybrids that consumers are flocking to.”

According to USA Today (7/2, Carty), “June auto sales weren’t as bad as some predicted, but the situation facing the automakers remains grim. … Once gas prices topped $3.50 a gallon, the automakers said, the shift away from gas guzzlers accelerated.”

“[M]anufacturers failed to adapt to a shift in demand to more fuel-efficient cars,” the AFP (7/2) points out.

The AP (7/2, Krisher, Durbin) adds that “Ford has been trying to raise output of the lone factory near Detroit that makes the Focus compact, but still couldn’t meet demand this month. Both GM and Ford have announced plans for new subcompacts, but it will take at least two years to gear up factories for the new products.”

Meanwhile, the Christian Science Monitor (7/2, Trumbull) notes, shares of GM “are trading at prices last seen in the 1950s, their value cut in half in just eight weeks. Ford and Chrysler are in even worse shape,” according to analysts. “The sobering implication: The Big Three may have to become the Big Two, and even survivors will have a tough road ahead.” While “[b]ankruptcy is not a near-term threat,…the three carmakers are fast burning through cash reserves.”

Bloomberg (7/2, Ohnsman, Bensinger) reports that “Honda Motor Co. and Hyundai Motor Corp. increased June U.S. sales amid an industry decline, leading Asia-based automakers to outsell” Detroit’s Big Three “for a second straight month.”

NPR ’s (7/2) Morning Edition, BusinessWeek (7/2, Henry), Forbes (7/2, Marcus), the Detroit Free Press (7/1, Webster), and the Detroit News (7/2, Hoffman, et al.) also cover the story.

B’Man: I hate it for you, guys, but you have been raking in huge profits for years. You have fought higher mileage standards all along. You fight each and every saftey issue that is brought up. But the biggest issue is that you milked the petro-chemical dependence for all it is worth, disregarding alternative fuels and electric cars to continue your and their massive profits.

Have your chickens come home to roost?