Word: cars
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Most car owners fret about how to coax another year out of the heap in the driveway, but there are still customers aplenty for the expensive, high-precision toys known in the automotive trade as exotic cars. Most of the buyers are men in their early 40s who are lured by names like Aston Martin, Maserati, Ferrari and Lamborghini that whisper freedom and promise sybaritic luxury. Oil-rich Arabs are big buyers: a member of the Saudi Arabian royal family this year paid $114,000 for two Lamborghini Countach-Ss lovingly built in Bologna. Sheiks and wealthy Japanese are queuing...
...problem is rising production costs, a shortage of skilled labor and, most important, the financial and technical burdens of meeting the increasingly stringent pollution and safety requirements in the European companies' important export market, the U.S. The costs of retooling plants to manufacture cars that meet U.S. standards will add about 20% to the sticker price and cut deeply into profit margins. Lamborghini, which makes only eight to ten cars a month, has already written off the U.S. market rather than invest the money required to meet its specifications. Maserati, which sends half of its output...
...disappearance of the exotic car would hurt the development of automotive technology. Those sweet chariots pioneered, among other things, techniques for maintaining stability at high speeds, and were early users of radial tires and light-weight alloys that later became popular on mass-produced models...
...superauto," which would have the same comfort and performance as the current models, but cost less. Other experts fear that the American requirements, plus the likelihood that European nations will be lowering speed limits to conserve energy, may cause insurmountable problems. Asks Giorgietto Giugiaro, Italy's top freelance car designer: "Is there any sense in buying a car whose prestige depends on its performance and the music of its engine, if these cannot be used after...
...small, but it is nimble. Last week American Motors Corp., which produces only 1.83% of the nation's cars, swung a deal with Renault, the French-owned automaker, that should help it cope with the expected demand for small, gas-stingy cars. AMC will get $150 million from Renault, $50 million in credits, and the rights to build the French company's newly designed front-wheel-drive car starting in 1982. The U.S. firm would thus have an entry to challenge General Motors' X-body compact cars, which are now being marketed, and the new models that...