Word: opels
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...little bug below Volkswagen price and power level, have a mere 3.2% share of the domestic market and 6.4% of German exports. In the first seven months of 1967, NSU car sales dropped 27% from the same period last year. Volkswagen too was feeling the pinch: in July both Opel (G.M.) and Taunus (Ford) outsold the Beetle in Germany. That NSU has survived the crush of the giants at all is a triumph. Its sales grew from $10 million in 1958 to $120 million last year, and almost all profits were poured back into the company. Now, says Von Heydekampf...
While such giants as Volkswagen, Opel (G.M.) and Taunus (Ford) have cut back production to meet declining demand, BMW in Munich has been turning out its cars at full two-shift capacity. In the first five months of 1967, overall German car sales dropped 18%. At the same time, BMW increased its own turnover by precisely the same percentage, expects to reach the $250 million mark in total sales this year...
Something for Sportsmen. What really saved BMW was a management shuffle in 1961-62. The new team included Director Paul Hahnemann, 53, in charge of production and sales, a former Opel man. Looking for a car with popular appeal, he discovered a wide space between the cheap small cars and fat sedans, decided to move into the middle-price range and catch buyers willing to pay a bit more for styling and speed. On the road since 1962, the "New Class" line of cars, so named for its appeal to the modern German, comes in four basic models...
Pleasant Headache. But impressive gains are being scored by others, as evidenced by the No. 2 import, West Germany's G.M.-made Opel, which has sold 21,000 cars in the U.S. so far this year, almost double last year's pace. Partly accounting for the foreigners' success is the fact that most have escaped the adverse safety publicity that has plagued domestic carmakers. When Washington's new safety standards take effect on 1968 models, however, the tables are likely to be turned. Automotive News recently reported that ten foreign makers may have to drop...
...pocketbooks. Volkswagen domestic production has dropped 25% from 1966's record high of 1,476,000 vehicles. Like U.S. automakers, the company has been hit by the safety scare. In the mini-motor field, which its beetles long dominated, VW is getting serious competition from General Motors' Opel and the German Ford. Nordhoff has been fighting the pinch with stepped-up exports and a new, cheaper ($1,121) 41 h.p. Model 1200 that he christened Wirt-schaftskrise Kafer, or "economic crisis beetle." With all that, his successor, Kurt Lotz, 54, will have plenty of problems...