The industry hit used-car sales in the neighborhood of 4.5 million units in June, and Edmunds.com pricing manager Richard Arca expects July’s used total to reflect "something very, very similar."

It would appear then that the used market remains fairly stable, as June’s used sales was also rather steady (up 0.9 percent) when compared to May.

"I would still say it’s strong," Arca told Auto Remarketing on Friday afternoon.

And as automakers begin rolling out July sales results today, Edmunds believes there could be some good news in store on the new-car front for Toyota, in particular.

Thanks to some inventory relief and bountiful incentives last month, Edmunds.com is projecting more than a 21-percent sequential sales hike for the automaker, which looks like it will get its market share back up above 12 percent, the firm said.

But that’s not to say Toyota has completely recovered, said Edmunds senior analyst Jessica Caldwell.

“Inventory issues are not seriously holding back Toyota anymore, and a 25-percent month-over-month boost in incentives are helping the company finally pick up the sales momentum that it needed,” Caldwell explained. “But with sales expected to be off more than 20 percent compared to July 2010, Toyota still has a long way to go.”

Edmunds projected that Toyota’s sales will come in at 134,480 units for July, a 21.2-percent month-over-month gain and a 20.5-percent decline from July 2010. Market share for Toyota is expected to come in at 12.6 percent, which is more than a 2-percentage-point improvement from its June proportion.

Overall, Edmunds believes the industry will hit 1.07 million sales, a year-over-year-gain of 1.6 percent and a spike of 1.3 percent sequentially. The resulting seasonally adjusted annualized rate would be 12.3 million units, compared to 11.4 million a month ago.

Edmunds is expecting that the retail SAAR will climb from 9.1 million units to 10.3 million and forecasts fleet penetration at 16.5 percent.

“Prices are falling as dealer inventories are becoming more stable, so this boost in sales over last month was expected, and it is encouraging news for the auto industry,” stated Edmunds chief economist Lacey Plache.

“But some pricing and supply issues are still restraining market growth, and there is also an underlying question of whether there are larger economic issues at play,” Plache continued. “Exactly how consumers react to next month’s summer sales events will go a long way toward answering that question.”

Continuing on, Edmunds delved further into its predictions for individual automakers.

Like Toyota, Honda has struggled to securing inventory in light of the Japanese earthquake’s aftermath. However, it doesn’t appear to have recovered as much as its Japanese rival when it comes to supply and sales, Edmunds indicated.

Honda’s projected July sales total — 81,884 units — is a 27.2-percent year-over-year drop and a 2.4-percent slide from June. The automaker’s market share is likely to dip to 7.7 percent, compared to 8 percent the previous month.

Within the Big 3, General Motors (forecasted sales of 216,880 vehicles), Ford (180,795) and Chrysler (107,292) are all predicted to see year-over-year sales gains, with Chrysler leading the way among all top six OEMs listed by Edmunds with a 15-percent hike.

However, Ford and Chrysler are likely to see sequential declines of 6.5 percent and 10.9 percent, respectively, with GM up only 0.7 percent from June.

Likewise, each of the Big 3 automakers is expected to see a bit of market-share loss. Ford is forecasted to fall 1.4 percentage points from June to 17 percent and Edmunds sees Chrysler dropping 1.4 points as well to finish at 10.1 percent.

Edmunds predicts a 20.3-percent market share for GM, down 0.1 points from the prior month.

Lastly, Nissan’s July sales are projected to reach 91,906 units, an 11.6-percent increase from a year ago and a 27.8-percent hike from the prior month. The sequential gain leads the six major OEMs.

Edmunds believes Nissan’s market share will improve from 6.8 percent to 8.6 percent on a month-over-month basis.