It's been a tough 24 hours for American automakers.  In sales figures for the first half of 2008, General Motors has fallen behind Toyota, and Ford has announced a whopping second-quarter loss of almost $9 billion dollars.

Reuters reports, "General Motors Corp trailed Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp in global vehicle sales decisively through the second quarter and first half of the year, hurt by a large decline in North America."  GM reported that a sales drop of about three percent worldwide through the first half of 2008, while Toyota sales overall rose more than two percent during the same period.

Neither of the two largest automakers is expected to do particularly well in the second half of the year.  Edmunds Inside Line notes, "This year, Toyota has cut its internal sales projection to around 9.5 million vehicles. Analysts expect GM to finish the year with around 9 million sales."

But neither can match Ford's bad news.  MSN Money reports, "Ford Motor this morning reported a whopping second-quarter loss, as consumers shifted away from large sport-utility vehicles and trucks to smaller, more fuel-efficient cars."  Ford lost $1 billion on sales alone in the second quarter, and "Ford wrote down assets of $5.3 billion for its auto business and $2.1 billion on leases at Ford Motor Credit."  The total loss?  $8.7 billion.

Bloomberg notes, "Ford said it had $26.6 billion in automotive cash at the end of the quarter, down $10.8 billion from a year earlier."  Ford officials insist the company has enough liquidity to continue operating, but spokesman Mark Truby says the company "hasn't set a new goal for returning to profit."

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