Drivers choose cars over trucks as auto sales plunge

Cars outsold the top-selling Ford F-series truck in May for the first time since 1992, a sign of the rapid shift in customers’ preferences from trucks and SUVs to small cars that is forcing painful production cuts and plant closures at General Motors and Ford Motor .

For a generation, pickups and SUVs have symbolized a rugged, oversized, no-holds-barred American lifestyle.


Tuesday, automakers made it clear that consumers are hitting the brakes on their love affair with the hardiest, roomiest