Ford Motor Co. said its August sales dropped more than 26 percent as U.S. economic woes and high gas prices continued to batter the auto industry.

Toyota's sales dropped 9.4 percent from August of last year, a further indication that the woes in the U.S. auto market are continuing, but Nissan -- the only major automaker to show a sales gain in July -- reported another improvement, with a 13.6 percent increase in August sales.

Meanwhile, General Motors Corp. reported a 20.3 percent drop in sales from a year ago but a 31 percent improvement over its July totals, mainly thanks to offering all buyers employee pricing on many models.

"The GM Employee Discount for Everyone sale helped drive additional showroom traffic and our dealers are giving us some very enthusiastic feedback," said Mark LaNeve, vice president of GM North America Vehicle Sales. "We had our best sales month so far in 2008."

The company also doesn't expect a sales rebound in the second half of the year. It said Wednesday that it plans to cut 50,000 more vehicles from its production plan in the second half of the year.

"We expect the second half of 2008 will be more challenging than the first half, as weak economic conditions and the consumer credit crunch continues," said Jim Farley, Ford group vice president of marketing and communications.

Ford's sales decline was expected by industry analysts who predicted continued bad times for the U.S. auto industry. Other automakers report their sales figures later Wednesday.

Ford said its Ford, Lincoln and Mercury car sales dropped nearly 9 percent, while truck sales were off more than 32 percent.

A positive for the automaker was that the Ford Focus sales were up 23 percent and Escape sales were up 17 percent versus a year ago.

"The Focus and Escape offer the features and fuel economy today's consumers want," said Farley.