Excluding fleet sales, retail car sales rose 12 percent, the company said.

High fleet sales are largely responsible for the temporary boom, according to Ford.

However, the company hopes to reduce its fleet sales to the industry average in 2011 with a renewed product lineup.

The move, however, guarantees revenues for Mitsubishi from rental fleet sales.

But the company does not expect to post significant gains in overall fleet sales.

Huge fleet sales keep Lincoln's production lines humming and have lifted its market share.

Executives at the Detroit companies have said they will compensate for lower fleet sales by selling more vehicles to consumers.

To focus on satisfying consumer demand, fleet sales were put on hold for 14 months.

Car sales declined 8.2 percent, to 130,781 vehicles, because of lower fleet sales.

The fleet sales, primarily to daily car-rental companies, have low margins.