Word: detroit
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Foreign makers view Detroit's shift as a return to normal size rather than a direct challenge to their cars. They figure that the new U.S. compacts-which run about 15 ft. long and start at about $1,800 list-will bite into the sales of regular U.S. cars, but are neither small enough nor economical enough to cut the sales of the fastest-selling smaller imports, which run about 10 ft. to 13 ft. and deliver in the $1,600 range. Foreign makers expect to benefit from Detroit's new emphasis on smallness; they hope to increase...
...customer will indeed get a long overdue break. The Corvair, the Falcon and Valiant are more than a shift to small cars; they also signal a shift in Detroit's auto-building philosophies, notably an end to years of emphasizing styling rather than mechanical changes. From now on, the big emphasis will be on mechanical improvements and innovations. The 80-h.p. Corvair has them aplenty. It gets 25 to 30 miles per gallon, can speed up to 88 m.p.h., and climb an ice-covered grade of 30° that would stop a standard car. Its flat "pancake" aluminum engine...
...This Is It." Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the Corvair is the way Cole designed it and sold the idea to General Motors. He put the Corvair wheels in motion way back in 1952, a most unlikely time. Detroit then was riding a crest of chrome, and it looked as if anyone who bucked the trend to bigness would get honked right out of the industry. Henry Kaiser's chromeless little Henry J. was a flop. Romney's Ramblers were losing money. Just a few years before, Chevy had started to tool for a compact model...
...Leave Your Keys." The Chevy Division was bucking a problem most uncommon in Detroit: it had grown too conservative. Chugging along on what was basically a 1937 engine, the division was losing out to competition. Sales had slipped from 1,517,609 cars in 1950 to 871,503 in 1952. G.M. President Charlie Wilson grew worried, offered to give Chevy Boss Thomas Keating anything or anyone to pep up Chevy. Said Tom Keating: "I want Ed Cole." Red Curtice, then G.M.'s executive vice president, sent a hurry call to Cole, told him of his promotion to chief engineer...
...fast as he can. He steps out of bed at 6 a.m., putters around his garden (orchids, Ficus, dracaena and billbergia plants), has a breakfast of cereal and fruit, hops into a black Impala hardtop. He drives the 30 miles from his home in Bloomfield Hills to his Detroit office in 35 minutes, arriving at 8:10 sharp. In a typical day Cole averages a conference almost every half hour, drives more than 150 miles to various Chevy plants, is rarely home before 7 p.m. Like any good mechanic. Cole applies preventive maintenance. He neither drinks nor smokes, carefully watches...