Detroit's Big Three automakers have reported unexpectedly strong U.S. vehicle sales figures for February, pointing to signs of a possible soft landing for the faltering economy.

Rebates and other discounts became slightly more widespread last month than in January and were heavily promoted, especially by Chrysler.

General Motors and especially Ford Motor increased somewhat their reliance on low-profit shipments to corporate and rental fleets. And vehicles remained fairly affordable in February, only slightly rising in price over the last four years, excluding the addition of new options, even as incomes have climbed swiftly for the affluent families who buy most new cars and light trucks.

Healthy sales in February, combined with slower shipments from factories, helped car dealers clear lots that had become overstocked with unsold vehicles earlier this winter.

According to the manufacturers, February sales were down 6.2 percent, with a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 17.52 million, well ahead of predictions. The results were still well below the blistering 19.2 million rate of February 2000 - the second best ever - but analysts cautioned against unfair comparisons.

Automakers are still trimming their production plans in anticipation of slightly lower sales. But if the trend in February continues, U.S. vehicle sales would easily be on track toward their third best year ever in 2001, as has already been predicted by the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA).

U.S. automakers still expect domestic sales this year to come in between 16 million and 16.5 million units, well off last year's record 17.4 million, but still considered acceptable given the softening market.

General Motors Corporation, the world's largest automaker, said its U.S. sales were down 9.8 percent, with car sales off 8.8 percent and light truck sales down 10.7 percent.

No. 2 Ford, meanwhile, reported a 10.8 percent fall in U.S. vehicle sales for February, in line with analysts' predictions. Its car sales were down 8.5 percent, while its truck sales fell 12.2 percent. Hurting Ford's performance last month was a 29 percent drop in sales of its Explorer sport utility vehicle and a 33 percent slump in demand for Ranger pickup trucks. Ford has high hopes for its revamped 2002 Explorer, now headed to U.S. showrooms.

Some of the sting of Ford's February slide was mitigated by 13.9 percent jump in demand for Taurus, a 30.5 percent rise in sales of Mercury Sables. Ford sales analyst George Pipas attributed those performances to increased fleet sales.

Sales at the struggling Chrysler unit of DaimlerChrysler AG were off 10.5 percent, better than expectations. U.S. car sales were down 13 percent, while light truck sales were off 10 percent.

Sales at GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler do not include their foreign brands.

"We remain optimistic about the prospects for a 'soft landing' and healthy auto sales," said Bob Rewey, Ford's vice president of Global Consumer Services and North America.

All results exclude the automaker's foreign brands, and are based on the daily sales rate; there were 24 sales days last month, one less than a year ago.

Slowdown Began in October 2000

Overall, sales of cars and light trucks have slowed in the U.S. since October versus year-ago results, as consumer expectations for the slipping American economy went from bad to worse. The Conference Board said on Feb. 27 its index measuring Americans' confidence in the economy slumped in February for the fifth straight month to its lowest level in more than 4-1/2 years.

However, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Feb. 28 that weakness in home-and car-buying has been modest. The Conference Board survey also found consumers still planning to buy big-ticket items such as new cars and homes in the next six months, despite worrying that their incomes won't grow and job prospects are dimming.

GM and Ford both said they were cutting production in the second quarter compared with the same period a year ago, as they moved to reduce bloated inventories of unsold cars and light trucks.

GM said it had about 87 days' supply of unsold vehicles, while Ford said it had about 80 days and Chrysler said its inventories were at the industry norm of 60 days' supply.

A 60-day supply of vehicles is widely considered in the industry to be ideal, so as to offer a range of colors and options at each dealership.

Ford said it was upping its production schedule for the current quarter by 10,000 vehicles, or about 1 percent. It had earlier lowered quarterly production on two occasions, and even with the increase, production will be down 16 percent from last year's record.

GM said its second quarter production would run 17 percent below last year. GM and Chrysler, which has announced 26,000 job cuts in a restructuring designed to restore profits, have announced one-week shutdowns at a few plants in March. Ford said all of its plants will be running normally.

As part of its plan to return to profitability Chrysler also has moved to slash potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies to dealers.

Japan's major automakers, which have made major gains market share in recent years at the expense of Detroit, reported better results as a group than did the Big Three. Mazda reported a whopping 24 percent gain.

Toyota Motor Corporation said its U.S. sales were up 1 percent in February while Honda Motor Company said its sales rose 9 percent. Nissan Motor Company, however, said its U.S. sales fell 6 percent.

European automakers slipped just 2 percent in U.S. sales in February, with BMW posting a 19 percent gain and Volkswagen a 7 percent drop.