February feels a lot like January for GM sales

11/02/2009 - 0:16

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The head of Chevrolet's North American unit said on Tuesday that February auto sales were about the same as January, which was the industry's worst month in 27 years.

Speaking at an event on the eve of the Chicago Auto Show, Ed Peper, North American vice president at General Motors Corp , expressed confidence that sales would improve as the month wore on because of aggressive promotions.

"So far, it's been kind of like January ... It started off fairly similar. But I think this particular month, with a lot of the promotions that a lot of manufacturers are doing around Presidents Day, I think we will see a pickup in business."

Peper said he expected February U.S. auto industry sales to come in upwards of a 10 million unit annualized rate, above the 9.57 million unit annualized rate in January that was the lowest since 1982.

(Reporting by James Kelleher and David Bailey, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)