Toyota Down 12% in January, Ford Up 24.6%

With so many 0% auto loan incentives and attractive lease incentives in January, it would have been hard to pass up buying or leasing a new car this past month. Overall sales were predicted to be up compared to last year.

Ford offered 0% interest car loans in January and up to $3,500 in cash back incentives. Ford saw a 24.6% increase compared to January 2009.

"People increasingly are discovering that the Ford difference is the strength of our products, particularly our leadership in quality, fuel efficiency, safety, smart technologies and value," Ken Czubay, Ford vice president, U.S. marketing sales and service, said in a statement.

No surprise to anyone, Toyota was down 12% in January compared to a year ago. Although the automaker had 0% auto loan incentives and good lease incentives in January, it seems the recall of millions of its vehicles has affected Toyota. Toyota’s Lexus division was up 14.2% in January.

The tiny city cars from smartUSA did the worst in January, with an embarrassing 84.3% drop in sales compared to last January. Was the smart fortwo just a fad of the gas hike during the summer of 2008? Only 278 smart fortwo’s were purchased in January nationwide.