Word: automen
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...still dropping. Even so, the industry cannot produce the most popular models fast enough to satisfy demand. Inventories that for some makes hit a 150-day supply in early 1975 are now down to an average of 52 days, well below the 60-to 70-day supply automen like to maintain; some '76 models already are becoming scarce...
...automen say that the key to recovery is a rise in confidence among consumers that it is safe to go into debt to buy a new car. The carmakers have thus been troubled by the recent spurt in interest rates and a midsummer dip in polls measuring consumer confidence. But many Wall Street analysts believe that American motorists cannot sit on their wallets much longer. By some estimates, nervous consumers have put off buying 4 million cars over the past two years, creating a reservoir of demand that Detroit could well begin to tap with its 1976 models...
...public's purchasing power over the past year, while rising unemployment has also cut deeply into sales. The jobless rate stood at 7.1% in December, and it may turn out to be close to 8% for January, when the latest figures are released this week. Many automen complain that the Ford Administration stuck to an anti-inflation policy too long; they are pleased that the Administration has tilted policy more toward expansion, but wonder whether it has gone far enough...
Still Dismal. Sharply skidding car sales have played a major part in tipping the economy into its present deep recession. Production cutbacks have closed 20 auto plants; almost 300,000 workers-one-fifth of the industry's total-have been laid off. Automen complain that sales have been depressed by shrinking consumer confidence caused largely by Washington's inability to cope with the nation's inflation, recession and energy crisis. Another explanation comes from Auto Analyst Alfred Nelson of the Wall Street brokerage house of Cyrus J. Lawrence. Says he: "The sticker price went up an average...
Rising Prices. The automakers have blamed their recent problems on a number of villains: high car-loan interest rates, costlier gasoline and a shattering of consumer confidence by anti-inflation pronouncements from the Ford White House. But automen have not said much about one obvious sales deterrent: high prices for new cars. On the average, the sticker prices of the 1975 models are about $450 higher than the 1974s. Since the end of the 1973 model-year just 15 months ago, car prices have risen by an average...