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

DATE: TUESDAY, July 27, 1993                   TAG: 9307270119
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ROANOKE VALLEY ECONOMIC INDICATORS

The Virginia Automobile Dealers Association reported 645 cars were registered to new owners in the region last month, up 6.3 percent from the 607 reported in the same month a year ago. Registrations are generally taken as a measure of sales.

But the tally was off 12.9 percent from the very good month of May, when 741 new vehicles were registered.

New car sales were up 7.2 percent for the first half of the year. The association said 3,360 cars were registered through June compared to 3,133 for the 1992 period. Of the total of 645, the association said, 453 were domestic models and 192 were imports.

Of the total, 269 cars were registered in Roanoke County, 311 in Roanoke City and 65 in Salem.

Also, Norfolk Southern Corp. loaded 19,840 coal cars last week, down 4 percent from 20,684 in a comparable week last year but up 2 percent from 19,431 the prior week.