Word: gm
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...strike for hefty settlements without arousing a public outcry or getting into an argument with the President. Without the Ford Administration committing itself one way or the other, 80,000 General Motors workers last week walked out of 16 plants for a few hours and won a settlement that GM called "the most expensive package" in the company's history...
...have the widest choice of car sizes available," says William Benton, general manager of the company's Ford division, appropriating a boast long made by GM. "There are customers who do not want to compromise the six-passenger comfort and the many other attributes of the family-size car. We are going to continue to meet this sizable market...
...make cars shorter and lighter. Trimmer cars can be driven by smaller engines that drink less gas per mile. Technology was also refined. Emission-control devices, always the enemies of fuel economy, were built in, not slapped on, making for more efficient engines. Ignitions were more precisely tuned. GM's Delco-Remy division developed an electronic gizmo called MISAR, which monitors driving conditions and adjusts ignition-spark timing for optimal performance (for now, only the Oldsmobile Toronado sports the device at GM, although Chrysler has installed a similar device on several models). By 1976, the GM fleet average...
...long (but not as heavy) as its predecessor. Thunderbird, however, is 10 in. shorter this time to compete with the snazzy intermediate Chevrolet Monte Carlo and Chrysler Cordoba. A new LTD II replaces the Ford Torino in the intermediate camp, where cars sell for less than GM's barely larger full-size cars, in the hope of winning over former GM drivers...
Whoever wins the great scrap of 1977, all the automakers are already at work down-sizing their cars for 1978 and later years. GM will reduce the size of its 1978 intermediates, then its 1979 compacts. The smallest cars will have front-wheel drive to eliminate the transmission-train "hump" that decreases back-seat leg room. Next spring Ford will trot out a pint-size Lincoln called the Versailles and in another year will be bringing over its subcompact Fiestas from Europe (TIME, July 12). In 1979 both Ford and Chrysler are expected to introduce new full-size models...