Ford Motor Co. on Tuesday reported an overall 14 percent sales decline in August, hurt by a decline in showroom sales, but set a higher production target for the fourth quarter.

The second-largest U.S. automaker said it sold 218,332 vehicles in August, down from 255,112 vehicles a year earlier.

Excluding Ford's European luxury brands and heavy-duty trucks, Ford's sales fell 15 percent in August.

The company said retail, or showroom sales fell 13 percent, while sales to car rental companies were down 44 percent.

Results for Ford, which had sought to cut its lower-margin fleet sales to car rental companies, included its import brands and some medium- and heavy-duty trucks.

Ford also said it plans to produce 640,000 vehicles during the fourth quarter, up 6 percent from the same period a year ago.

Our plan remains to align production capacity and inventories with consumer demand, said Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas division. Our second-half production is in line with this thinking.

Sales of Ford's best-selling F-Series pickup trucks fell 10 percent in August, while overall truck sales were down 2 percent. Ford's car sales declined 34 percent in August.

Sales of pickup trucks have been hurt by a weak U.S. housing market as most of these vehicles are purchased by construction workers.

(Reporting by Poornima Gupta)

Retail Ford Motor Company