www

2:00pm -- reviewing the July U.S. sales press release. Looks like General Motors sold 320,935 vehicles in July, with over 239,000 of those coming from retail (not fleet) sales.

2:03pm -- the 320,935 figure is down 18.5% compared with year-ago monthly July sales (which are being labeled as "exceptionally strong" by GM) .However, retail sales of 239,192 vehicles were up 14.5% compared with June 2007.

2:05pm -- Paul Ballew with GM starts by saying that there was a substantial improvement in vehicle mix from the June to July sales months, with vehicle Inventories being flat compared with the year-ago July 2006 U.S. sales period.

2:07pm -- July saw the return of the 0% financing promotion from GM, which continued to help sales growth according to the company.

2:09pm -- July 2007 sales were down from very strong July 2006 sales based on the year-ago quarter's past model year sales increases (selling out 206 models as 2007 models are introduced). GM: "On the upside, we are pleased with the continuing success of our new products, especially the GMC Acadia, Saturn Outlook and Buick Enclave, which pushed our mid-utility crossover segment growth up more than 300 percent. As with many of our vehicles, these all-new crossovers offer segment-leading fuel economy, terrific performance and outstanding value."

2:11pm -- GM states that the automaker's customer warranty coverage has increased substantially as a reason consumers cite when buying a new GM vehicle. Well, that may be true, but with Chrysler's new lifetime warranties just being announced last weekend, this may affect GM sales soon, maybe.

2:13pm -- there are about 950,000 units in GM's overall U.S. inventory, trekking to the company's goal of about 1 million units.

2:15pm -- incentive spending is down about $100 from the year-ago month (not that much of a change) across GM's product lines in the U.S. market.

2:18pm -- the analyst Q&A begins as Paul wraps up his July comments. First question: will the demand for GM's vehicles see an increase for the rest of the year? Answer: gas prices are a little down (as well as oil barrel prices as of today). The overall industry sales figure for 2007 is still tracking at 17.7 for the year-- right now, projections are looking at 16.5 million through the end of July.

2:22pm -- next question: are sales slides in California and Florida leaking out into other areas of the country? Answer: there are pockets of the country with down trends, although GM is comfortable with Midwest sales right now. However, the coasts are very important for truck sales.

2:25pm -- next question: is there still a projected retail sales pullback expected for Q3? Rental sales would be up slightly in Q3 (timing issue, says Paul). GM is also not expected to follow competitor incentives unless the competition continues throwing "hand grenades" at GM (as in, Toyota's Tundra). GM has the best truck, says Paul, but at some point GM has to respond to Toyota at some point.

2:28pm -- next question: what changes to truck incentives happened in July, and did GM cut production to trucks in July? Answer: GM did cut production for trucks in July, and for incentives, GM had to stay within a "range" when it came to the truck market with Ford, Dodge and Toyota (the top competitors in trucks it has). GM spends in the area of $3,000 in incentives in full-size trucks, according to Paul.

3:31pm -- next question: is credit availability having any industry impact on vehicle sales? Paul: 72-month lending is increasing (that is a very bad term for any vehicle consumer, by the way), but GM is keeping an eye on it every month. Right now, credit availability shifting has not really changed in any significant way.

3:33pm -- next question (we start the "media" portion of the Q&A): retail performance for the first seven months for GM was how much? Paul: so far, 2.9 million units overall have been sold, but July sales were down over 20% in the retail market (not a good month for GM was July).

3:37pm -- next question: July-end inventory was what? 267,000 cars and 281,000 trucks were in active inventory at the end of July, says Paul.

3:40pm -- next question: buyers are keeping their cars longer -- due to quality (being better) or is there some other kind of economic variable at play here like gas prices? Paul: replacement demand is brought on by many factors, including gas prices and other factors.

3:43pm -- next question: can GM quantify what certain incentives actually cost GM? Paul answers: the 0% for 60 months is very prosperous and customers respond very well to this incentive (no direct answer here).

3:49pm -- last question: although the industry is underperforming, can GM continue to make changes so that it can get better as the industry recovers. Paul says that it's one of GM's goals to make the North American market as strong as it can be from a profit standpoint so that it will be "that much better" when the industry recovers.

3:52pm -- that's it -- GM's July sales, like Ford's, were quite disappointing and lower than expected. Will August and the rest of 2007 see better results and will the Toyota Tundra keep GM's truck business up on its toes? We'll all have to wait and see.

: