Word: subcompacts
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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During the past four years, AMC has been developing a French accent. Except for the four-wheel-drive Eagle, the firm has retired all the passenger cars it used to make. In their place is a new line of cars imported from France, including the subcompact Le Car and the sporty Fuego. The smash hit, though, has been the appropriately named Alliance, manufactured in Kenosha...
Introduced last September, the Alliance (base price: $5,595) is the fourth leading subcompact, behind the Ford Escort, the Nissan Sentra and the Chevrolet Chevette. That is no small accomplishment, since the three leaders all have much larger dealer networks. Consumers say they like the Alliance's low cost and fuel efficiency (37 m.p.g. in town, 52 m.p.g. on the highway...
...buyers already are showing the influence of cheaper oil. Sales of Chevrolet's full-size Caprice and Impala models rose 12.6% during the first quarter, for ex ample, while its subcompact Chevette showed a 40.2% drop. Ford sold 25.3% more of its big Crown Victorias, and 9.8% fewer of its little Escorts. Ford is extending the life of its Victoria and Grand Marquis models, which were to have been phased out this year, and Chrysler is keeping its big New Yorker and producing large cars 16% faster than it did four months ago. Chairman Lee Iacocca, however, wants...
While he has been restructuring the corporation, lacocca has never stopped scrutinizing new model designs. A little while ago, he took one look at a mock-up of a 1986 subcompact, then curtly told the stylists that the front grille and bumper made them look like "Dodg'em cars." The lights burned late in the styling studios for weeks thereafter. lacocca is unrepentant. Says he: "The guys who have it tough in this company are the product guy and the marketing guy because I grew up in those areas and think that I know more than they'll ever know...
...would undertake joint ventures with foreign manufacturers to get economies of scale or low-cost labor or design or technological expertise. The combines he talks about do not sound so different from the one GM and Toyota announced last month, a collaboration in California on the manufacture of a subcompact car. However, lacocca rails against that one because GM and Toyota are so enormous and powerful already...