Fiat Chrysler sales rise 7% despite major storm

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Detroit • Fiat Chrysler says its January U.S. sales rose a healthy 7 percent, a sign that the auto industry may have shoveled past a snowstorm that buried the East Coast late in the month.

The Italian-American automaker says it sold just over 155,000 cars and trucks last month compared with 145,000 a year ago.

But Fiat Chrysler wasn't led by its usual big sellers. The Jeep Cherokee and Ram Pickup recorded modest increases. Instead, FCA was led by big jumps in sales of its aging minivans and the Dodge Durango SUV.

Analysts are predicting a sales drop from a year ago due to the snowstorm after all automakers finish reporting numbers on Tuesday. J.D. Power forecasts a 4.5 percent drop while TrueCar.com expects sales to fall 0.3 percent.