Word: subcompacts
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Chrysler's surge toward profitability is due mostly to drastic reductions in corporate spending. Already burdened with $2.3 billion in debts, the firm has cut $2 billion from capital-spending plans by postponing or canceling new models. Instead of developing its own 1986 subcompact, it is cooperating with France's Peugeot in the joint design and construction of a new model. By closing plants and laying off workers, Chrysler has also slashed its fixed spending and operating costs by another $2 billion. It has closed eight plants, laid off 22,000 white-collar workers and put thousands...
...burden for us." As Chrysler's financial problems have worsened, its dealer base has shriveled, and Mitsubishi has steadily lost ground to tough Japanese competitors like Honda and Toyo Kogyo. Last year, Mitsubishi's cars, which include the sporty Challenger and the economical Colt subcompact, accounted for only 6.9% of all Japanese exports...
...cars, a line of front-wheel-drive small autos, represent the strongest effort yet to attack the successful Japanese models. Said Robert Lund, the general manager of GM's Chevrolet division: "We're tired of hearing about how the domestic auto industry let the Japanese take the subcompact business away from us. The whole Chevrolet organization is spoiling for a fight...
General Motors, which did not introduce any totally new models this fall but will put out its subcompact J-cars next spring, is likewise suffering a sales falloff. In November it sold 7.1% fewer cars than in the same month last year...
That goal, however, could run into some buyer resistance. Drivers continue to be stunned by the price tags on the new models rolling out of Detroit. Ford announced last week that its new subcompact Escort would cost at least $5,128. That is over $1,000 more than the Pinto it replaces and will be about $200 more than a 1981 Toyota Corolla. GM's hot-selling Chevrolet Citation four-door hatchback at $6,282 will cost 9.6% more this autumn; the price has risen almost 40% since it was introduced 1½years ago. To make the price...