Word: subcompacts
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...world automakers are now scrambling to grab a niche in the market for efficient, very high mileage compacts and subcompacts for the mid- to late 1980s, but Volkswagenwerk of Wolfsburg, West Germany, is quickly pulling ahead. Having largely phased out its venerable Beetle profile of the 1950s and 1960s for the engineering improvements and angular lines of the bestselling Rabbit in the 1970s, the company is now at work on the aerodynamically sleek silhouette of a new subcompact four-seater design that looks more like a Gucci slipper than...
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...