June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Cars made by Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. outsold Ford Motor Co.'s F-Series pickups in the U.S. last month, the first time in more than 15 years any car topped the Ford vehicle in sales.

Honda's Civic and Accord and Toyota's Corolla and Camry all racked up higher sales than the F-Series as consumers coping with record gasoline prices sought more fuel-efficient vehicles. The Civic was the best-selling model in the U.S. for the first time.

Ford sales analyst George Pipas said the automaker's Taurus sedan outsold the F-Series in December 1992, as part of a push to overtake Accord as the top-selling car. Autodata Corp. analyst David Lucas confirmed that date and model.

``It's a watershed month,'' Jim Farley, marketing chief at Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford, said on a conference call. ``We've never seen $4.20 gas. It's just a sign of the times.''

Honda sold 53,299 Civics and 43,778 Accords in May, spokesman Chris Martin said today. Toyota reported sales of 52,826 Corollas and 51,291 Camrys.

Ford, which sold 42,973 F-Series pickups, will offer the trucks at employee-discount prices this month, Farley said. The F-Series has been the best-selling line of vehicles in the U.S. annually for 26 years.

In December 1992, Ford sold 65,324 Taurus cars and 39,867 F-Series trucks, Pipas said.

Focus Surges

The second-largest U.S.-based automaker sold more Focus small cars than F-Series pickups to individual consumers, Farley also said. Those so-called retail sales usually are more profitable than those to business and government fleets that get discounts for buying in bulk.

The F-Series still beat the Focus in total sales because of fleet purchases. Ford sold 32,579 Focus cars last month, an increase of 53 percent from a year earlier, while the F-Series total was a 31 percent drop. Ford's total sales fell 16 percent last month, its sixth straight monthly decline.

Declining pickup sales contributed to Ford's announcement last month that it would abandon a target of returning to profit by next year. The company had combined losses of $15.3 billion in 2006 and 2007, mostly because of its North American unit.

The automaker is slashing North American production for the rest of 2008 in response to the lower truck sales.

GM, the largest U.S. automaker, said today that it will close four truck plants, build more small cars, and may drop its Hummer brand of large sport-utility vehicles. The company's May sales fell 28 percent, including a 37 percent plunge for pickups, SUVs and vans.

Ford rose 4 cents to $6.68 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have fallen less than 1 percent this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Koenig in Southfield, Michigan at wkoenig@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: June 3, 2008 17:32 EDT