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Buford Used Chevrolet Mini Vans Cargo Vans and Buford Pre-Owned Cargo Vans and Mini-Vans<%If Request.QueryString("printerFriendly")<>"true" Then %> <% End If %> Chevy Express Cargo Van CLICK HERE ... To Visit the Official Website of Bill Heard Chevrolet
Used and PreOwned Sports Cars of Gwinnett! Chevy Passanger Van <% If Request.QueryString("printerFriendly")<>"true" Then %> You don't want to miss out on owning one these fine new or used vehicles... so come see us TODAY! It's a tale of two diverging economies: red-hot Canadian automotive sales set a new record in February while sales continued to deteriorate in a U.S. market sloping into recession.
While rising Canadian sales reflect the boom in the country's resource sector, Ontario's automotive industry will likely continue to suffer due to plummeting sales being recorded south of the border, where about 85 per cent of the cars and trucks built in Canada are exported. About 140,000 people in Canada are employed in automotive assembly and parts production. CLICK HERE ... To Visit the Official Website of Bill Heard Chevrolet
Used and PreOwned Sports Cars of Gwinnett! General Motors Corp. Chevrolet Malibu and Pontiac G6 vehicles await delivery outside the company's Orion Assembly Plant in So while the higher Canadian sales are an indicator of the overall country's wealth, it's the U.S. sales -- such as the 32 per cent plunge in sales of the Windsor-built Dodge Caravan minivans -- that are most closely watched by those employed in the Canadian industry. In the U.S., even Toyota's sales were down. In Canada, all the major players saw sales increases. General Motors, the largest automotive retailer in Canada, reported sales up 14 per cent in Canada. Number two Chrysler said sales were up 5.7 per cent. Sales at third-place Ford were up by 4.1 per cent. "We shot the lights out again," Dennis DesRosiers, president of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants of Thornhill, Ont., said of Canadian sales. "Another record month.... It is hard to find a dark spot in these sales numbers." Canadian light vehicle sales totalled 110,951 units, up a "solid" 14.3 per cent over same month last year, DesRosiers said. Canada's previous record was 103,200 units for one month in 2003. The Japanese carmakers had a phenomenal month: Toyota Canada's sales increased by 26.2 per cent; Honda Canada was up 53.2 per cent, and Mitsubishi was up 59.2 per cent. "Serious price cuts" were the main reason for the Canadian sales record, DesRosiers said. Cuts that started last fall due to the higher value of the Canadian dollar continued into the winter. Chrysler Canada has now increased its sales every month for 19 months running. It did so again in February despite cutting back on easy-to-find fleet sales. Dave Buckingham, vice-president of sales for the company, said an increase in retail sales, as opposed to fleet sales, means February was even better than it looked from the raw numbers. Sales were down for most automakers in the U.S., where an estimated 6.7 per cent fewer cars and lights trucks sold compared to February, 2007. On an annualized basis, sales fell from a rate of 16.6 million units last February to 15.4 million units this February. Honda was a major exception in the U.S., where its sales rose by 4.9 per cent. Chrysler was down 14 per cent in the U.S., GM dropped by 12.9 per cent and Ford was down 6.9 per cent. Last month's U.S. decline is the industry's seventh since June, reinforcing projections for sluggish sales in the first half of this year. Analysts forecast U.S. auto sales this year of about 15.5 million, the lowest since 1998. The slump may hurt domestic automakers more than foreign rivals. Chrysler president Jim Press said last week that GM, Ford and Chrysler won't be able to block overseas-based carmakers from permanently holding more than half of the U.S. market as the three U.S. companies continue to cede share. Ford's slide to 196,681 sales was spurred by a 9.3 per cent decline in car sales. Gains for smaller models such as the Ford Fusion and Focus failed to offset shrinking demand for larger sedans such as the Ford Taurus and Crown Victoria. Truck sales were down 5.6 percent, including a 4.9 per cent falloff in F-Series pickups and a 27 per cent plunge for the Explorer sport-utility vehicle. Chrysler's sales drop of 14 per cent was led by a 32 per cent decline in its Dodge Grand Caravan. Chrysler said some of the decline stems from planned reductions in low-profit sales to rental-car companies. An a sales incentive, Chrysler said it will offer Dodge Ram trucks with Hemi engines at no extra cost compared with smaller engine varieties. CLICK HERE ... To Visit the Official Website of Bill Heard Chevrolet
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