Cruze sales increased in January

LORDSTOWN

The Lordstown-built Chevrolet Cruze saw a 38.9 percent year-over-year increase in its January sales.

The compact car had 19,949 sales in January 2017, which compares with 14,362 made in January 2016, General Motors said today.

The automaker has cut back production on the Chevrolet Cruze this year because of a drop in demand for small cars. The third shift ended at the local plant and with it came the loss of 235 jobs on the fabrication side and more than 600 on the assembly side.

Today, workers were told there will be several down weeks during the year to continue to align with market demand. The automaker is not commenting on when those down weeks will be.

Overall, GM U.S. dealers delivered 195,909 cars, trucks and crossovers in January, down 3.8 percent year over year. Retail sales totaled 155,010 units, down 4.9 percent.