Cautious Buyers Put Brakes on Auto Purchases : Sales: Late-February gains lag behind expectations. Clinton’s speech ‘scared people out of the showrooms,’ one analyst says.

DETROIT —  Sales of U.S.-built cars and trucks shifted into low gear in late February as consumers reacted to President Clinton’s calls for “sacrifice” by holding onto their aging models.

Domestic car and truck sales rose 9.2% in the Feb. 21-28 period to 236,118, but most of that came from higher sales of trucks, minivans and sport utility vehicles.

Domestic car sales rose a modest 3% to 138,278, while light-truck sales jumped 19.2% to 97,840.

However, industry analysts said the gains were below their expectations, and if sales maintained the late-February pace for the rest of the year, auto makers would be forced to trim back their production.

“The pace of sales for all of February was lower than either December or January, not the sort of trend you want going into the important spring selling season,” said Thomas Webb, chief economist for the National Automobile Dealers Assn. “This, plus other less than robust economic reports released this week suggests the recovery, which was only jogging slowly ahead, is already taking a breather.”

The percent change figures for the late-February period were adjusted for two fewer sales days in this year’s period than in last, when there were eight actual sales days.

On a seasonally adjusted annual basis, which takes into account the number of “high-volume” sales days and other factors, domestic car sales skidded to a 5.4-million rate in late February, far below the 6.5-million rate in mid-February and the 6-million pace set at the same time last year.

Light trucks sold at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.9 million in the period.

Analysts said that if every month of 1993 were as slow as February, total industry sales for the year would equal just 10.6 million units, far below last year’s 12.9 million.

On Tuesday, the government said its main forecasting index of leading economic indicators edged up only 0.1% in January, while sales of new homes tumbled to the lowest level in 11 years, both indications of slow growth.

Auto analyst David Healy of S.G. Warburg said Clinton’s tax proposals may have persuaded some buyers to hold onto their aging models for a few more weeks.

“I think Clinton’s speech scared people out of the showrooms,” he said. “They’ll be back, but it cast a chill over consumers.”

“People have had time to sit down and think about what Bill Clinton’s plan means for them,” said analyst David Garrity of McDonald & Co. “Washington sneezes and Detroit catches pneumonia.”

Garrity said auto makers may have to cut back ambitious first-half production schedules if sales remain flat.

But Ford Vice President Robert Rewey said the auto industry recovery is still on track, and Ford dealers are optimistic about the spring selling season.

He said Ford still plans to build 20% more cars and trucks in the first quarter of 1993 than it did a year ago.

Including imports from Japan and Europe, U.S. auto sales rose 5.8% in February to 1.85 million units. Ford and Chrysler Corp. continued to gain market share from the Japanese, adding 2.1 percentage points last month to 74.8% of the market, but General Motors Corp.’s share of the car and truck market tumbled 2.5 percentage points to 33%.

GM, the world’s largest auto maker, said its domestic car sales fell 1.2% in late February to 59,756, but light truck and minivan sales rose 25.3% to 35,142.