June may have been another diversion on the automakers’ road to recovery. Light vehicle sales were up 2.8% from June 2010, but off 4.6% from May 2011. June’s seasonally adjusted annualised rate (SAAR) came in at 11.45m, the slowest rate since last June’s 11.17m units.

The Detroit automakers claimed the majority of sales, a marked improvement over both June 2010 and May 2011.

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Chrysler led the charge, picking up two points of market share as sales jumped 24.5%. Jeep was the star, coming in 67.5% ahead of last year.

Ford also had a respectable month reporting an 8.6% increase and taking another full percent of the market share as the Ford brand became the first to pass the million-sale mark. As an extra treat, the Mustang outsold the Chevy Camaro for the month.

General Motors had to be content with a 6.3% improvement and another half-point of market share putting it over 20% of the light vehicle market. Chevrolet scored big as the Cruze and Malibu were the top-selling cars in June.

Toyota and Honda took it on the chin; both reported sales down by more than 24%. Nissan came in ahead of last June by 7.1% and Mitsubishi was up by 90.1%. Mazda and Suzuki were also in the black, by 1.8% and 7.6%, respectively.

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In the electric car race, the Nissan Leaf is trouncing the Chevrolet Volt.

The Japanese are hurting in the upscale segment: Lexus was fourth in June, behind BMW, Mercedes and Cadillac, Acura fell behind Audi, and Infiniti dropped to ninth. The Japanese automakers’ woes don’t seem to be benefitting the competition; premium marques accounted for just 10.5% of sales in June, down from 11.4% in 2010: the missing Japanese vehicles account for the gap quite nicely.

The Koreans reported new all-time best June sales. Hyundai sales up were 11.2% while Kia’s jumped 35.7%.

Except for a stumble at Jaguar Land Rover, the Europeans finished well. Audi and Mercedes-Benz set new June records and Volkswagen sales soared 29.9%. Volvo’s new arrangement seems to be working nicely; sales were up 36.7%. Saab reported a 43.8% sales improvement.

Small cars are hot but those envisioning fleets of micro-cars may be disappointed: Ford is selling about four Focuses for every new Fiesta; the Accent and Rio definitely aren’t the big sellers at Hyundai and Kia and the Aveo isn’t even within hailing distance of the Cruze.

June sales raised some flags but we shouldn’t write off a 13m sales year yet. The drop-off from May to June in 2010 was larger than this year’s and a number of automakers beat not only their June 2010 sales but their May 2011 sales, as well.

There are concerns, to be sure: the US economy remains sluggish and consumer sentiment has fallen. Plus automakers have been raising prices and cutting incentives in a market still searching for deals. But petrol prices are coming down and the Japanese recovery looks to be ahead of schedule, hopefully bringing back sales that were missing in May and June.