Sales slid to 132,916 vehicles from 146,291 a year earlier. The Big Three's share slumped to 52.8 per cent in July from 56.6 per cent a year earlier and 57.3 per cent in June.

"We had a horrible July -- both stores," said an Ontario Ford dealer who owns two stores and insisted on anonymity. He was not alone, as Ford sales nationally tumbled 20 per cent from year-earlier levels.

GM posted similar results with a 19-per-cent slide in sales.

"The Big Three product blitz may be the correct product for the U.S., but it may be missing the market a little in Canada," said industry analyst Dennis DesRosiers, president of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Ltd.

Ford, GM and the Chrysler division of DaimlerChrysler AG have cast 2004 as the year of the new vehicles that were designed to win back market share and reduce those companies' reliance on profit-sapping incentives.

So far, only Chrysler has received a major lift from new vehicles, with sales of its new mid-sized sedans helping to lift its sales by 1 per cent last month.

To be fair, some of the new vehicles on which Ford and GM are placing their hopes haven't arrived yet -- in particular the Chevrolet Cobalt from GM, which replaces its aging Cavalier compact, once the best-selling car in Canada.

The current best-selling car in Canada -- the Honda Civic compact -- rang up its best monthly sales total last month in 31 years in Canada, helping push Honda Canada Inc. sales up 6 per cent to its best July sales total yet.

Honda was joined by Nissan Canada Inc. and Toyota Canada Inc. in reporting record July sales.

"Honda finally put some incentive money into the market," Mr. DesRosiers said. "The consumer was very responsive because it's the first time they have ever seen money on Honda."

As for Nissan and Toyota, they have strong product lineups, he said, that fit particularly well with the Canadian market, where entry-level vehicles represent about 40 per cent of the market.

But other auto makers with strong entry-level products -- Hyundai Auto Canada Inc. and Kia Canada Inc. -- reported poor results in July with slides of 24 and 22 per cent respectively.

The Ford dealer said one of his stores sold about half the volume of new vehicles it would sell in a typical July.

"Ford is no longer a car franchise," the dealer said, focusing mainly on trucks, but sales of pickups have taken a beating because of high gas prices.

"I think we're dropping off a lot of peoples' shopping lists," he said.

The GM slide came despite a full month of its ring and win incentive program that has worked wonders for the auto maker's sales in the past when introduced in December as a year-end clear-out tactic.

The program provides a guaranteed rebate of $1,000 on top of interest-free loans and some winners get their vehicles for free.