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utters
While Detroit's automakers reported January sales 6.1 percent below last year's blistering start, it was still a surprisingly strong month to begin this uncertain year.
After a record sales year in 2000 that petered out in the final months, analysts were bearish on January's U.S. sales, forecasting a 9 percent to 10 percent drop _ with worse results from General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and the Chrysler arm of DaimlerChrysler AG.
Instead, results trumped the expectations.
Ford sales were down 7.5 percent, and GM off only 1.3 percent compared to January 2000.
The Chrysler Group had a rough month, as expected, reporting a 12.8 percent drop in sales to 160,680, compared with 184,317 in January 2000.
Chrysler also said it would idle four plants for a total of six weeks this month as part of its efforts to bring production in line with demand. Three Chrysler plants and 10,000 workers will be idle next week, including the 4,700-employee Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit.
Source: HighBeam Research, Automakers off to better start to `01 than expected.(Knight...