Word: subcompacts
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...slow lane on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Duesenberg, Auburn, Cord, Marmon, Stutz, Fierce-Arrow and Franklin have the glamour of old movie stars-and are usually better preserved. The value of these classics now runs into six figures. American Classic Cars by Henry Rasmussen (Picturama/Schocken; unpaged; $24.50) allows the subcompact set to relive the golden age of the luxury automobile. A look at masterpieces as rare as a glimpse of Garbo...
...good many of the new names due to appear in showrooms will be carried by subcompacts being introduced to do battle with the smaller, zippier imports, such as the Honda Civic and Volkswagen Rabbit, whose sales are booming. GM's current entry in this field, the trim little Chevette (base price: $3,225, v. $3,499 for a Rabbit), was introduced in 1975, but Chrysler now plans to follow with the country's first front-wheel-drive subcompacts, the Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon. Ford, too, will offer a front-wheel-drive subcompact, the Fiesta, though...
More important to Detroit than the subcompact trade-which, while growing fast, still accounts for just a bit more than 10% of U.S. sales-is the market for mid-size vehicles. This broad bracket, embracing compacts (such as Chevrolet's Nova and Buick's Skylark) as well as intermediates (Chevrolet's Chevelle, Ford's LTD II) and what the industry chooses to call luxury small intermediates (Chrysler's Le Baron and Diplomat), is accounting for 54% of all U.S. auto sales this year. By contrast, the traditional standard or full-size cars now account...
...cars will, on average, shed half a ton of weight or more. The typical GM car today weighs 4,200 Ibs.; by 1985 the average will be down to 3,100 Ibs.-320 Ibs. lighter than the company's average 1977 subcompact. Obviously the "large" car of 1985 will be a lot smaller than the behemoth of today. But GM hopes to accomplish much of the weight reduction by such methods as paring down the thickness of cylinder walls and engine blocks, using more lightweight aluminum and alloys, and expanding the use of front-wheel drive systems, which...
Recapturing Volkswagen's former lead in the U.S. import market may be a more difficult proposition. The Rabbit faces plenty of subcompact competition-not only from other imports but also from new small cars to be brought out soon by Chrysler and American Motors. Some, ironically, will be powered by VW engines. One selling point for the Rabbits that will be made in Volkswagen's Pennsylvania plant: about 20% will be equipped with lightweight, fuel-stingy diesel engines, the first large-scale introduction of diesels to the American market...