Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. bumped DaimlerChrysler to grab third place in the U.S. auto market in 2006, while Ford Motor Co. saw its total sales slip under the 3 million unit mark.

U.S. auto sales dropped 2.6 percent in 2006 to just under 16.6 million units, according to data released today.

General Motors remained the top automaker in the U.S. market, followed by Ford Motor. But both automakers saw their sales drop last year by at least 8.0 percent compared with 2005.

In an industry that battles fiercely over small changes in market share, 2006 was a year of big swings.

GM saw its market share slide to 24.5 percent in 2006, down 1.7 percentage points from 2005. Ford Motor's market share stood at 17.5 percent last year, down 1.1 percentage points from 2005. DaimlerChrysler held 14.4 percent of the U.S. auto market last year, down 0.4 percentage points from the year before.

Toyota's U.S. market share jumped to 15.4 percent last year, up 2.1 percentage points from 2005. American Honda's share stood at 9.1 percent last year, up 0.5 percentage points from 2005.

Nissan North America, which saw its U.S. sales drop 5.3 percent in 2006 from a year earlier, surrendered 0.1 percentage points of market share to claim 6.2 percent of the market.

December tough on Ford, GM

U.S. auto sales fell 3.6 percent in December from a year earlier to 1,431,665 units.

Ford Motor and GM notched drops of 13.0 percent in the month from a year earlier as buyers continued to turn away from pickups and SUVs.

Ford said its U.S. sales in December were hurt by a 21-percent decline in sales of its F-series pickup -- its top-selling vehicle. Sales of the Explorer SUV were off 29.5 percent for the month.

Ford Motor's overall truck sales fell 14 percent in December. Its car sales were off almost 10 percent for the month.

Ford sold 231,618 units in December. The total includes the Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo brands.

Jaguar's U.S. sales dropped 36.5 percent in December from a year earlier, and the brand's U.S. sales in 2006 were off 32.0 percent from 2005.

GM cited the move away from big trucks, and cutbacks on sales to daily rental fleets, as factors in its sales decline. In December, GM's U.S. sales totaled 334,501 units, down 13.0 percent from December 2005. For the full year, GM's U.S. sales totaled 4,065,341 units, off 8.7 percent from 2005's total.

GM lowered its first-quarter 2007 production forecast to 1.120 million vehicles -- 455,000 cars and 665,000 trucks -- down 20,000 vehicles from its previous target announced last month.

The majority of the production decrease is attributed to GM's efforts to reduce low-margin daily rental fleet sales, the company said.