Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp. cut its 2007 forecast for U.S. industrywide sales of cars and trucks, citing the weaker housing market and higher gasoline prices. Toyota Motor Corp. said it expects the total to decline from 2006.

GM estimates sales of 16.5 million to 16.6 million, a reduction from its outlook of 16.6 million to 16.7 million on Aug. 1, Chief Financial Officer Fritz Henderson said today on a conference call. That includes medium- and heavy-duty trucks. Ford Motor Co. cuts its projection on that basis yesterday.

Toyota estimates sales of cars and light trucks will be about 16.3 million, a drop of 2 percent from 16.6 million last year, said Jim Lentz, the automaker's U.S. sales chief.

A declining U.S. auto market may hurt GM and Ford, which already have been losing sales at home to Asian companies led by Toyota. The Japanese automaker outsold GM worldwide in this year's first half and is poised to pass Ford as No. 2 in the U.S.

GM, based in Detroit, sold 9.4 percent fewer cars and light trucks this year through July than a year earlier, while Toyota's sales rose 6.1 percent and Ford's declined 12 percent. The industrywide total through last month fell 3.2 percent.

Ford, in a U.S. regulatory filing yesterday, lowered its U.S. industrywide forecast to a range of 16.5 million to 16.8 million. Previously, Ford had estimated 16.8 million.

Alan Mulally, Ford's chief executive officer, said today that his company's revised outlook reflects concern that sales may be pinched by the U.S. housing market and tightening credit.

The automaker won't let those conditions deter it from returning to profitability in 2009, he said at an industry conference in Traverse City, Michigan. Ford, based in Dearborn, Michigan, had a record loss of $12.6 billion last year.

`Headwinds'

GM chief sales analyst Paul Ballew said on a conference call that ``the combined headwinds of housing and energy prices are factors that continue to impact us in this market and will probably be with us going into 2008.''

Toyota's Lentz, in a speech in Traverse City, said that ``it's hard to pinpoint the market's current softness. Higher fuel prices? The housing slowdown? Lower fleet sales? Some payback from incentives of the past? Who knows?''

Lentz said sales to individual consumers ``are strong'' and that the Toyota City, Japan-based company expects the U.S. market ``will rebound in 2008 and then continue growing steadily into the next decade.''

The GM and Ford estimates include medium- and heavy-duty trucks. U.S. deliveries of such trucks totaled 544,581 in 2006, according to Southfield, Michigan-based Ward's AutoInfoBank.

GM shares rose $1.34, or 4 percent, to $34.82 at 4:22 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, while Toyota's American depositary receipts gained 81 cents to $123.22. Ford shares climbed 57 cents, or 6.9 percent, to $8.87.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Koenig in Traverse City, Michigan at wkoenig@bloomberg.net; Greg Bensinger in New York at gbensinger1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 8, 2007 16:27 EDT