Though not climbing at the same clip as earlier months, Canadian new-vehicle sales jumped nearly 3 percent in June, closing a first half that saw a “resurgent” market beat year-ago sales by more than 7 percent.

This was the latest take from DesRosiers Automotive Consultants, which released its monthly Market Snapshot and commentary on the country’s new-vehicle sales on Wednesday.

The data provided by the firm indicates that new-vehicle sales reached 169,459 units in June for a 2.8-percent gain. Through June, year-to-date sales have reached 864,911 vehicles for a 7.1-percent increase.

Despite the industry’s growth, the month was a “mixed bag” for some of the larger automakers, said DAC president Dennis DesRosiers.

“Top-selling Ford maintained its lead over Chrysler, but only the latter saw an increase in volume over June 2011,” he said, noting that Ford’s sales dropped 8.7 percent year-over-year to 30,539 units while Chrysler’s climbed 0.5 percent to 23,523 sales.

“Both of these Detroit-based companies showed improvement in total (year-to-date) sales, but both again have fallen short in the quest for market share gains,” DesRosiers continued. “For the January-to-June period, Ford’s share of the new vehicle market declined 1.0 points while Chrysler’s remained even with 2011.”

As for General Motors, its June sales fell 18 percent to 22,869 units.  DesRosiers noted that GM “continues to struggle against a headwind of strong competition, especially in crucial light truck segments.”

Year-to-date, GM’s sales are down 6.2 percent at 117,147 units, while Ford is up 1.3 percent at 142,129 units sold. Chrysler has moved 129,463 new vehicles for a 7.1-percent gain.

Among the Japanese automakers, Toyota/Lexus climbed 66.6 percent with 19,104 new vehicles sold and Honda/Acura moved 13,557 new vehicles for a 41.5-percent uptick, DesRosiers noted.

What’s more, Japanese automakers are taking share away from the Big 3.

“Japanese manufacturers built a considerable head of steam last spring; most are maintaining that positive momentum into the summer months,” DesRosiers pointed out.

“In the absence of last year’s supply restrictions, Toyota/Lexus and Honda/Acura are doing strong business with well-positioned new products,” he continued. “The market share lost this year by Detroit Three brands has been transferred primarily to Japanese brands.”

As for the European brands, each of the higher-volume brands notched year-over-year increaseas, except for  BMW, whose sales fell 6.4 percent to 3,288 units. For instance, Volkswagen increased sales 9.9 percent to 5,550 units and Audi was up 4.8 percent at 1,555 sales.

Likewise, the Korean brands were fairly steady, as well. Hyundai boosted June sales 2.4 percent at 13,761 units, while Kia was up 10 percent with 7,782 sales.