NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. posted sharp drops in U.S. sales in June, while DaimlerChrysler bucked the trend with a jump in sales.

GM, whose executives had warned of disappointing results in comments earlier this week, saw the daily sales rate fall 15.5 percent. The world's largest automaker sold 374,970 cars and light trucks, which includes sport/utility vehicles, pickups and vans. That represents an 11.5 percent decline, but GM uses the daily sales rate for purposes of comparison, and June 2004 had an extra sales date.

The light truck sales rate was off 16 percent, as the company saw a sharp drop in large SUV models in the face of high gasoline prices much of the month. Car models posted a 14.8 percent decline in the sales pace.

Company officials said part of the reason for the sharp drop was strong May sales, which may have pulled some sales forward a month. John Smith, GM's group vice president North America vehicle sales, said the company needs to improve its sales pace in the second half of the year, but the company left its production plans for the third quarter unchanged.

Ford, the nation's No. 2 automaker, posted an 8 percent drop in sales to 287,381 vehicles.

Car models posted a 17 percent drop in sales to 92,580, while light truck models, which includes sport/utility vehicles, pickups and vans, fell 3 percent to 194,801.

Sales declines were widespread at Ford, with only its Mercury brand posting a modest 2.4 percent rise.

In the face of high fuel prices, the company's more fuel-efficient vehicles saw better sales -- the compact Focus saw a 6.3 percent gain, while the Escape, its compact SUV, posted a 10.9 percent gain, the company's only SUV to post a gain in sales outside of its Volvo brand.

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DaimlerChrysler reported U.S. sales of 226,736 cars and light trucks, such as sport/utility vehicles, pickups and vans. That was up 5 percent from the year earlier period.

Chrysler Group, its North American unit that is the nation's No. 3 automaker, saw sales up 5 percent as well to 209,252, while German-based luxury car brand Mercedes Benz posted a 2 percent increase to 17,484. Vehicle-by-vehicle details of its sales were not immediately available.