Brent Snavely

Detroit Free Press

Ford said Friday its U.S. sales rose 6.4% in June as sales of its F-Series pickups, attacked last month by rival Chevrolet Silverado in an aggressive marketing campaign, soared 28%.

Ford sold a total of 240,109 new cars and trucks in June compared with 225,647 for the same month a year ago.

Sales of the mainstream Ford brand rose 6.4% while Lincoln brand sales increased 5.8% for the month.

More June 2016 auto sales coverage

In addition to pickups, Ford's sales were helped by its crossovers and SUVs, which collectively saw sales increase 7.3% for the month.

Sales of the Ford Escape SUV, for example, surged 20% while sales of the Ford Focus compact car fell 11.6%.

Still, it was sales of Ford's pickups that stood out. In June, General Motors launched an aggressive ad campaign with a video that showed 840 pounds of concrete blocks being dumped into Ford's aluminum truck bed as well as Silverado's steel truck bed.

While the demonstration left dents in Ford's truck bed in the commercial, the campaign did not dent sales of Ford's pickups.

In June, Ford sold 70,937 F-Series pickups while Chevrolet sold 49,662 Silverado pickups, a 3.7% decline.

"We had a sensational month," Mark LaNeve, Ford's vice president of marketing and sales, said when asked if the Chevrolet ads hurt F-150 sales. "That kind of marketing is not unusual…when there is a clear market leader, with a breakthrough product that is really resonating with consumer, they are going to try things."

LaNeve said the Dearborn automaker did not make any significant changes to its incentives and is actually in the process of selling down inventory to change over to its 2017 model.

General Motors spokesman Jim Cain said the Chevrolet marketing campaign actually "had a strong, positive impact on our results."

Cain said data from J.D. Power shows that Silverado gained 1.7 points in market share in June among individual buyers while Ford lost 0.4 points of market share.

Ford's sales in June slightly outperformed the overall industry, which continues to enjoy modest overall gains amid low interest rates and low gas prices. The overall industry will likely report a 4% increase in total sales in June compared to the same month a year ago, according to the average of three industry forecasts.

This year, automakers are on track to sell more than 17.7 million new cars and trucks this year, according to LMC Automotive. If that happens, the industry will set an all-time record, surpassing last year's record of 17.47 million.

Contact Brent Snavely: 313-222-6512 or bsnavely@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrentSnavely.