Word: automen
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Automen and consumers share the onus for a lack of small cars...
...dream. Last Wednesday the top executives of General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, American Motors and Volkswagen of America all sat down at the same table in the Washington offices of the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association for a lunch of asparagus vinaigrette and tomatoes stuffed with chicken salad. But the automen were not fixing prices; they were coordinating strategy for a meeting just after lunch with one of the industry's most powerful critics, Jimmy Carter...
...American auto problem is simply that customers are not buying the products that the U.S. turns out. The day the automen descended on Washington, new sales figures for the first ten days in May showed a staggering 42% decline from levels of a year earlier. And last May's figures had already been distressingly low. The plunge put the industry at the lowest sales level of any ten-day period in 22 years and represented an annual selling rate of only 5 million cars. Just two years ago, Detroit sold more than 9 million (the record: 9.7 million...
Though some of the automen had private reservations about meeting with a President who has often told them their troubles are of their own making, they emerged from the White House sounding more optimistic. "There's no specific plan," said Fraser, "but I think there's a chance that one will develop now." The executives hope that the President will do something fairly quickly to ease the credit restrictions now strangling new-car sales. Said Ford President Donald Petersen: "I think we got across to them that even with the rapid decline in interest rates, the problem...
...automen admitted that tax incentives and other federal aids will be slow in coming. None expects any of the emission and safety standards changes that they have been demanding. Imports are a tougher issue. While the President agreed to raise the trade problem with the Japanese at the Western economic summit meeting next month, the auto executives doubt he will do much beyond jawboning. The reason: import restrictions would mean higher-priced small cars and raise the flame under U.S. inflation. But the industry appeared at least reassured that the Administration has finally recognized trade as an issue...