Economic slowdown fails to hit car sales, at least in January

In February, 25,447 new cars were sold, which is 1.4% more than in the same period of 2002, but approximately 10% less than in January this year. February car sales cooled optimism of those who after the January results forecast a further increase. According to Wojciech Drzewiecki, the director of Samar a company monitoring the auto market, one factor behind the poorer result could be the government split, which increased economic uncertainty. Drzewiecki expects that this month sales will reach around 27,000, which is 12% more than March last year. In the first two months of 2003, Toyota sold 5,582 cars whereas Daewoo is still losing its market share, with a mere 1,973 units sold. (Rzeczpospolita, March 22-23, p. B2) A.Z.