China's once red-hot auto markets are braking hard as buyers shun showrooms due to purchasing restrictions and expiring policy incentives.

Auto sales across the nation totaled 1.44 million units in June, up a meager 1.4 percent from a year ago, said the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

The June figure brought sales for the first half of this year to 9.33 million units, a modest increase of 3.35 percent from a year ago, 29 percentage points slower than the same period of last year. The total output in the first half amounted to 9.16 million units, up 2.48 percent from the previous year, said the CAAM.

"The prospects remain gloomy," said Zhang Xin, an analyst at the Beijing-based Guotai Jun'an Securities Co. Ltd. "July and August will still be challenging for automakers because demand has always been relatively tepid in the summer."

Dong Yang, Secretary General of the CAAM, said he now expects 5-percent growth of overall vehicle sales in China for 2011, down from his earlier forecast of 10-15 percent.