AUTOS

Ford’s U.S. Sales Up 1.8% in May: The Dearborn, Mich.-based company’s Lincoln luxury car line posted weak results, as did the Ford Thunderbird and Mercury Cougar--two cars Ford has told suppliers it will replace in a couple of years with a small sport-utility vehicle. Ford Motor Co.’s car sales fell 1.6%, eating into the company’s 5% increase in sales of light trucks, sport-utilities and minivans. One bright spot: Ford’s Taurus regained its lead over the Honda Accord as the best-selling car in the U.S. So far this year, Ford has sold 162,156 Tauruses; Honda has sold 154,109 Accords. For the industry, strong sales at other U.S. auto makers more than offset Ford’s lackluster performance. With some auto makers yet to report, the industry is on track for about a 5% sales gain compared with May of last year, slightly higher than many analysts expected.