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

DATE: TUESDAY, March 10, 1992                   TAG: 9203100036
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CAR SALES UP; BUT SLUMP NOT OVER

New-car sales in the Roanoke Valley are up and so are home sales. But does that mean the recession's run its course and the recovery is under way?

Charlie Robertson, general manager of Magic City Ford in Roanoke, isn't so sure. So far this month he and his colleagues have sold 35 cars and four trucks, he said Monday. But 27 of those were to businesses, so-called "fleet sales."

The conclusion: No one's sure.

Last month, valley car dealers sold 460 new cars and trucks, according to registrations of new vehicles reported by the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association. That is 23 percent more than the 375 cars registered in the same month last year, tinged by the Persian Gulf War. In January, valley dealers recorded 493 sales.

Increasingly, though, dealers are concerned that the monthly sales numbers mask a skewed picture of the car market.

"There's some fleet buying going on," Robertson said. "But there's not that much retail, and that's what you use to measure whether there is any increase in our business or not. Right now, we don't see any change."

News of the upturn in car sales - whatever it means - comes one week after the Roanoke Valley Association of Realtors reported that home sales skyrocketed 61 percent in February over the same month last year. Real estate agents credited low mortgage interest rates, unseasonably mild weather and improving consumer confidence.

In other regional economic news:

Business bankruptcies in the Roanoke Valley plunged 52 percent in February from the same time last year, suggesting improvement in the general business climate and that weak firms likely already have been purged by the recession.

Norfolk Southern Corp.'s coal loadings dropped 24.6 percent for the week ended Sunday. The Norfolk-based transportation company loaded 18,436 coal hoppers last week, compared to 24,457 for the same week last year.

by CNB