Word: subcompacts
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...freeways, chug-a-lugging ever costlier gasoline, the standard-sized (which is to say, huge) U.S. car becomes a little less appropriate every day. Though new car sales generally have dipped about 20% below last year's totals for the past two ten-day periods, compact and subcompact sales are up more than 20%. Latest figures show that their share of the U.S. market has increased from 22% only four years ago to 40% now. Ford Motor Co. Chairman Henry Ford predicts that small cars will soon take 50% of the market...
Buyers are adding many expensive options that can almost double the price of a $2,200 subcompact. The extras include "deluxe" gas caps, fake woodgrain treatments for station wagons, air conditioning and more powerful (and gas-thirsty) engines. For $300, Custom-glass, Inc., of Costa Mesa, Calif., will even convert a Ford Pinto into a "Mini Mark IV" Continental by revamping its rear end and giving it a nose bob. Why go to all that bother to doll up a compact with all the frills? Detroit's backseat psychologists have this explanation: the U.S. consumer figures that buying...
...that "there is always a place for someone who can do things a little bit differently." In developing AMC's compact Hornet in 1969, being a little different meant designing a car that would also serve as the basis for the company's entry in the subcompact sweepstakes. Instead of designing a whole new subcompact, as GM did with its Vega and Ford with the Pinto, American Motors spent a remarkably low $5,000,000 and simply cut down the Hornet. As a result, the company produces the only subcompact with a six-cylinder engine (the others have...
...line is also the fastest in the U.S., capable of producing 100 cars an hour. The labor force-long-haired, pigtailed and bell-bottomed-is the youngest of any G.M. plant, with an average age of 24 to 25. Now Lordstown, the only U.S. plant that turns out subcompact Vegas, has the industry's worst labor problem, and so far it has cost G.M. about $40 million in lost production...
...declining sports sales. Ford, for example, now offers a "Grabber" model of its compact Maverick equipped with hood scoops, rallye stripes and a special paint job. It costs $175 more than an unadorned Maverick. Similarly, for $349 over the regular price, Chevrolet is marketing a "GT" version of the subcompact Vega with a black grille, racing steering wheel and sturdier wheel rims. Both models give the illusion of being fast sports cars, but beneath the paint they are still economy cars with little engines...