Word: ramblers
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...other hand, Romney will have a problem with some of his dealers. Some 30% of them are auto bigamists; they sell a Big Three car as well as the Rambler, will probably carry the Big Three's line of small cars (though only Chevrolet, Ford and Plymouth dealers, of which Rambler has practically none, are expected to). Romney hopes that his hard core of 2,800 dealers will stick with Rambler. During the industry's 1958 slump, Rambler saved many of them; last year they made a 2.8% profit on their total sales v. .2% for the average...
...George Romney has brought off singlehanded one of the most remarkable selling jobs in U.S. industry. He has taken a company that only three years ago was on the brink of the grave, the butt of countless jokes ("Did you hear about the man who was hit by a Rambler and went to the hospital to have it removed?"), and given it a new and vibrant lease on life. More remarkable, he has done it all by selling an "economy" car that, in 1956, actually cost $4 more than the Big Three's cheapest...
Just as remarkable, Romney has proved a powerful competitor not only against the Big Three but against a flood of small imported cars, whose chief selling point is even lower cost and greater economy than the Rambler. This year the 60-odd foreign cars coming into the U.S. are expected to account for 560,000 units, or more than 10% of the U.S. market. But Rambler's sales have risen faster than any of the imports...
Fifth Place. Rambler has done so well that it is in fifth place in U.S. auto sales (after Chevrolet, Ford, Oldsmobile and Pontiac); its share of the market has risen from 1.6% to 6.2% in two years. This week it made its 20th successive increase in production in 1½ years. Yet the public is still ordering Ramblers faster than American can produce them. Romney is in the midst of a $10 million expansion program that will lift the company's capacity to 440,000 cars a year...
...Rambler's success, the Big Three are not hurting much. Last week the auto industry showed promise of the first spring pickup in sales since 1955, chalked up a record near two-year, midmonth high of 174,780 new car sales. Automen are confident of a 5,500,000-automobile year. That is good news for George Romney; the more car sales, the bigger the share he expects...