SANTA MONICA, Calif. -

With gas prices slowing down a bit, there isn’t the same rush to snatch up small cars like there was earlier in 2011, but shoppers are still gas-price-conscious when considering larger vehicles, according to recent analysis from TrueCar.

The firm indicated that based on June’s new-vehicle sales, the month’s TrueMPG — the company’s measure of fuel economy averages by brand, OEM, origin and segment — was 21.6 miles per gallon industry-wide, compared to 21.9 mpg in May.

A year ago, TrueMPG was 21.3 mpg.

The fact that more consumers were willing to buy larger vehicles in June as gas prices waned led to the month-over-month decrease.

“Car buyers are no longer seeking smaller vehicles as they had in the previous few months as gas prices have recently declined,” explained Jesse Toprak, TrueCar’s vice president of industry trends and insights.

“That said, consumers looking for larger vehicles, such as large pickups, are choosing the more fuel-efficient six-cylinder versions that offer the same utility but better fuel economy,” he added.

Breaking TrueMPG down further, the firm noted that the Big 3 averaged 21.6 mpg fuel economy in June, compared to 21.3 mpg a year ago.

Europeans were at 21.5 mpg, compared to 21 mpg in June 2010. TrueMPG for Japanese brands was at 22.9 mpg, down from 23.2 mpg.

Korean brands were at 25.1 mpg, down slightly from 25.2 mpg a year ago.

Among the seven major OEMs, Hyundai achieved the highest TrueMPG at 25.2 mpg, followed by Honda at 23.4 mpg. Nissan and Toyota both averaged 22.6 mpg, with GM (21 mpg), Ford (20.6 mpg) and Chrysler (18.9 mpg) rounding out the list.

Sharing TrueMPG averages by segment, small cars across the industry were at 27.9 mpg in June, down from 28.6 mpg last year. For average midsize cars, it was 25.1 mpg, compared to 24.8 mpg in June 2010. Average large trucks got 16.4 mpg, compared to 16.2 mpg a year ago.

To shed some more light on these trends, TrueCar offered the following tables: