Sales are forecast at 1.48 million vehicles, up 3.2 percent from last July, the industry consultancies said. Retail sales will show the strongest July since 2005, they said.

JD Power and LMC Automotive said the seasonally adjusted annualized sales rate for July will be 17.2 million vehicles.

Major automakers report U.S. July sales on August 3.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall; Editing by Andrew Hay)