Money | Ford Clunkers Drives Ford's August Sales Up 17% Hyundai surges 47%; GM drops 20% and Chrysler 17% By Nick McMaster Posted Sep 1, 2009 1:56 PM CDT Copied In this photo made Sunday, Aug. 2, 2009, the blue oval insignia of Ford shines off the deck lids of unsold 2009 Focus sedans at a Ford dealership in Denver. F (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) Cash for Clunkers reverberated through August auto sales reports released today, with Ford and Hyundai scoring big jumps, the Wall Street Journal reports. The winners and losers: Ford's light vehicle sales rose 17% year-over-year, with the Focus and Escape both in the top eight most popular vehicles purchased through the Clunkers program. Hyundai's sales surged 47%. GM plummeted 20%, while its vehicles were among the most traded in under the program. Chrysler's sales dropped 15% from the year-ago period. The firm blamed inventory shortages on its low sales. Nissan saw an August year-over-year sales decline of 2.9%. Read These Next It started with failure to say 'thank you,' ended with murder. Freak accident kills a woman as she cleans her car. It landed on the 4th try. There wasn't enough fuel for a 5th. Trump's pick wins charges against Letitia James. Report an error