DETROIT -- October auto sales fell to their lowest point in seven years, down 14% from last year, as the industry continued dealing with a hangover from this summer's employee-discount incentives.

General Motors, which instigated employee prices in June, saw sales fall 25.9% in October. Trucks and SUVs, which are among the biggest revenue makers for the automakers, were down 33% at GM, including the profitable Cadillac Escalade, which was down 49%. "Although a slowdown after the record sales of the last several months was expected, October was a difficult month for us and the industry," said Mark LaNeve, GM's vice president of sales and marketing for North America, in a press release.

Ford, which sells twice as many trucks as cars, posted a 25.7% drop in sales. Truck sales were down 31.6%. Car sales were down 11.0%, but could have been worse. The automaker rolled out three new cars in October -- the Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan and Lincoln Zephyr. Their sales totaled less than 7,000.

DaimlerChrysler's sales were down 2.8%, but car sales boomed 21.9%. Chrysler Sebring was up 126%.

Only companies with strong car lineups saw gains. Four automakers reported modest sales increases: Toyota, up 1.3%; Honda, up less than half a percent; Mitsubishi, up 1.4%; and Subaru, up 1.5%.

The industry's annual sales pace was 14.75 million vehicles on a seasonally adjusted basis, compared with 16.96 million a year ago, according to AutoData.

Employee discounts drove demand up 16% in June and July. But analysts had warned that the promotions would sap demand from the fall months. September sales were down nearly 8%, and analysts forecast November will also be a sluggish month.

"My feeling is that it's mostly payback for the employee-discount programs," says David Healy, an analyst with Burnham Securities. He notes the summer bargains weren't cheaper than other deals, but the automakers' strategy worked because consumers believed they were getting an inside price. "It was just a marketing masterpiece."

GM is trying out a new strategy now: Instead of plying customers with big rebates and incentives, it is attempting to put sticker prices closer to the expected selling price of the vehicles.

But Kevin Tynan, an analyst with Argus Research, predicts GM might abandon that strategy come December, when the industry tends to revert to year-end blowout sales. "December will be interesting. ... They're really going to have to stick to their guns."