Continuing the trend of the last few months, domestic auto sales for Ford and General Motors showed strong improvement in January. Ford sold 116,534 vehicles, a 25 percent jump over the first month of 2009, while General Motors jumped 14 percent on sales of 146,825 vehicles. Chrysler bucked the trend, dropping 8 percent from last year.

Much of the gain may have been at the expense of Toyota, which saw its sales drop 16 percent after having to recall more than 5 million cars in the U.S. alone due to a sticking gas pedal.