CAR SALES COME TO LIFE IN DECEMBER

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 21, 1992                   TAG: 9201210047
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MAG POFF BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
CAR SALES COME TO LIFE IN DECEMBER
Despite a major improvement in December, sales of new cars in the Roanoke Valley fell sharply in 1991.
The Virginia Automobile Dealers Association reported registered sales by valley dealers of 6,148 cars last year, down 16.7 percent from 7,377 in 1990. Auto registrations, though not an absolute measure of sales, generally are an accurate indicator.
Last year's decline was atop 1990's weak sales, which for Roanoke dealers were down 13.3 percent from 8,509 in 1989. The number of new cars sold here has dropped annually since 1986's high of 10,671.
Roanoke-area dealers, however, registered sales of 397 cars in December, 31 percent more than the 302 in December 1990. That followed a gain in November, when 481 cars were registered locally compared to 434 the year before.
Local trends generally reflect auto sales statewide.
Ron Nowland, executive director of the Virginia dealers association, said 270,000 new cars were registered in Virginia last year, off 14.6 percent from 316,000 in 1990 and a sharper 26.4 percent from 367,000 in 1989.
Statewide sales also rose in December, Nowland said. Every other month in 1991, however, was down from the same month in 1990.
Nowland said his outlook for 1992 is "about what we've had this year - if we're lucky."
But he said consumer demand for new cars should have built during the recession. Nowland said the average age of cars now on the road is eight years, about the same level as during World War II.
Other new statistics added this week to the regional economics indicators show:
Appalachian Power Co. reported sales of 286,741,984 kilowatt hours of electricity in December, up 4.1 percent from 275,444,954 in the same month last year and 18.4 percent from 242,198,019 in November.
Charles Echols, spokesman for Apco, attributed the difference to the weather. He said the number of heating degree days last month was 6.6 percent higher than a year ago.
For the year, sales were up 1 percent from 1990; Echols said both heating and cooling demand rose in 1991 compared to 1990.
In round numbers, Apco sold 3.2 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in the Roanoke area last year, slightly less than 1 percent more than 3.17 billion kilowatt hours in 1990.
Norfolk Southern Corp. loaded 19,505 cars in its Pocahontas coalfields last week, down 6.4 percent from 20,832 cars in the comparable week last year.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB