Word: carly
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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After a thundering 1977 model year, automobile executives are scrutinizing the latest sales figures with the anxiety and puzzlement of early-morning dockers timing the latest workout by an erratic race horse. Overall, the car industry's performance has been disappointing of late. Domestic sales dropped by 6.3% in the first ten days of December, the third decline in a row. General Motors sales were down by nearly 14% from last year's, while Chrysler and American Motors slumped by 8.4% and 29%, respectively...
Oddly, though, automen have seldom been so ebullient about the future of their industry. GM Chairman Thomas Murphy clings to a forecast of record U.S. car and truck sales in 1978. Ford is highly optimistic, with good reason: its sales in early December jumped 13% above those of a year ago, giving it about a third of the domestic market. The company will spend $2.5 billion next year to enlarge its plants, launching an expansion program that Chairman Henry Ford II describes as "bigger than anything we've ever tackled before in the 75-year history of the Ford...
Detroit is also gingerly moving toward what many regard as the autos of a future in which it must make cars smaller to comply with federal gas-mileage requirements: front-wheel-drive cars. Front-wheel drive, an idea from Europe, makes possible a transverse engine-one that is fitted sideways under the hood. That saves enough space to permit a surprisingly roomy interior in a relatively small car. Moreover, there is no transmission tunnel running back through the passenger cabin to cramp leg room. GM offers front-wheel drive on some Cadillac and large Oldsmobile Toronado models and is preparing...
...Product-Planning Chief Hal Sperlich is both cautious and cocky. "We are heading for an encounter of the third kind that can have tremendous consequences for us," he admits. Then comes the characteristic salesman's caveat. "Chrysler is the last of the big three to build a small car, and as my colleagues at Ford used to say, 'Last in, best dressed.' " Maybe. First sales results will be available in February, and if they are good, the industry's drive to make cars that are smaller yet roomy will accelerate...
...Angeles. The two youngest, Dollie Cepeda, 12, and Sonja Johnson, 14, vanished a week before their bodies were found on a trash heap in Elysian Park, near Dodger Stadium. Neighbors of the latest victim, Lauren Rae Wagner, 18, a student at a local business college, saw her in a car with two strange men the night she disappeared...