Automakers gear up for New York auto show

The rain stopped, the sun appeared and New York's major auto show opened Wednesday amid signs that new-vehicle sales are recovering from a 35 percent slide nationally in the past two years - 21 percent on Long Island - that forced thousands of dealers out of business.

The New York International Automobile Show kicked off at the Javits Center with the traditional upbeat speech by a major industry figure. This year it was Ford Motor Co.'s president and chief executive Alan Mulally, who said, "We made it through one of the worst recessions since the Depression."

Despite a surge in business last year from the Cash for Clunkers program, automakers sold only about 10.4 million new cars and trucks nationally, the lowest total in 27 years. Sales were nearing 17 million a year before the recession.

On Long Island, new vehicle registrations fell by 21 percent from 2007 to 175,939 cars and trucks in 2009, according to the auto information company R.L. Polk and Co. But in January there was a boost - almost 7 percent from a year earlier, to 12,344 new registrations. Still, full recovery is far off. In January 2008, local dealers sold more than 16,700 new vehicles.

Local figures for February and March aren't available yet, but nationally, February sales rose by 13 percent and automakers are expected Thursday to post gains for March.

Still, not everyone was as upbeat as Mulally.

Hyundai Motor America president John Krafcik said that some of the gains nationally have been in sales to fleets. "The U.S consumer is, I think, still skeptical about the strength of the economic recovery."

And, automakers and dealers said, credit still is tight for buyers seeking financing. "Credit availability is better than it was a year ago," said General Motors' Jim Campbell, "but still tighter than it was two years ago."

Industry experts attributed the brighter sales picture in part to warmer weather in March, and also to special leasing programs, cash rebates and other sales incentives. Since Friday, GM, Toyota, Honda and Nissan have announced plans to boost production to meet growing demand in the United States, and, in some cases, China.

GM cited as one factor strong sales of its Equinox, a mid-size sport utility vehicle, and the similar GMC Terrain.

Long Island Chevy dealer Mark Calisi, owner of the Eagle Auto Mall in Riverhead, said he wished he could get more of them, as well as Traverses and certain pickup trucks, but his Chevrolet sales have been about 30 percent higher this month than a year earlier. "If I had more product," he said, "I would go to 50 percent."

At Security Chrysler Dodge Jeep in Amityville, co-owner Gabe Vigorito said sales are up 65 percent this month from a year ago, in part because it has taken over the Jeep franchises formerly operating in Lindenhurst as Island Jeep. "All of them are moving well," he said of the Jeep models.