Word: jeep
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...biggest fan is Gerald C. Meyers, 50, chairman of American Motors Corp., which bought manufacturing rights to the Jeep from Kaiser Industries in 1970. Though the company lost an estimated $65 million on its conventional cars for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, AMC still posted a $36.7 million profit on sales of $2.6 billion. Most of that black ink comes from Jeeps...
This year AMC will sell some 150,000 of them to U.S. buyers, plus 25,000 abroad, giving its Jeep division 31% of the domestic sports-utility market-a term covering relatively small four-wheel-drive vehicles designed for off-road use. Running second is Chevy's Blazer with nearly 24% of the market, followed by Ford's newly revamped Bronco with 21%. Next year U.S. automen expect to produce 1 million four-wheel-drive vehicles. The field has become so attractive that even Mercedes plans to enter with its own four-wheeler by next summer...
This is a world away from the battle fields of World War II, when a generation of G.I.s depended on the frill-free G.P.s (for general purpose, and hence Jeep) that could growl through rivers of mud and over impossible obstacles. General George C. Marshall called the Jeep "America's greatest contribution to modern warfare," and the infantry man developed a love affair with his Jeep that was sketched by Cartoonist Bill Mauldin in his Willie and Joe series...
Somehow that personal relationship survives today. Jeep buyers seem undaunted by the $12,000 starting price of AMC's new top of the line Wagoneer Limited, which has almost every luxury-car feature and for which there is a long waiting list. Sales of the least expensive $5,000 CJ. (for civilian Jeep) - a doughty, roofless runabout that is a direct descendant of the wartime model-have never been brisker. Rising gasoline prices have not deterred buyers, although industry sources say the Jeep fleet averages about 11 m.p.g. But federal authorities have directed that four-wheel-drive fleets must...
Still, the tempo is upbeat and Jeep is looking for new conquests abroad. Says Meyers: "Venezuela is a good market and we're expanding there. Mexico is a small but pregnant market, and Africa is just sitting there-waiting for Jeeps...