Car giant Ford says July’s US sales were up 2.3% from a year ago, helped by the government’s scrappage scheme.

The Ford group – which includes the Ford, Lincoln, Mercury and Volvo brands – sold 165,279 vehicles last month.

The company said demand for its fuel-efficient cars together with the US government’s Car Allowance Rebate System was behind the rise.

"We had another strong month in progress before the ‘Cash for Clunkers’ programme started," Ford said.

Ford is the only one of the "Big Three" US carmakers not to have filed for bankruptcy protection.

Last month, it reported a quarterly profit of $2.3bn (£1.4bn), although the profit was largely due to one-off gains related to debt restructuring.

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