TREND TO SMALL CARS ON U.S. MARKET

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28629, 4 July 1958, Page 12

TREND TO SMALL CARS ON U.S. MARKET

Impressed at the success of the American Motors’ Nash Rambler and the interest shown in small British and American cars at the New York Motor Show, the Stude-baker-Packard Corporation has announced a new economy car which will be put on to the production lines next year. The company is at present fighting hard for survival, having lost £2,250,000 in the first quarter of this year, on top of £20.000.000 in the previous two?* years.

The sales of imported cars continue to increase in the United States, and the small European family car—compact, economical, and easy to park—has captured a proportion of the market which the major American companies realise they cannot overlook. Imported cars outsold American Motors and Studebaker-Packard combined last year. Imported Cars

General Motors are importing 1000 Vauxhalls a month from their British subsidiary, as' well as 1000 Opel Rekords from Germany. Last year. Ford sold just short of 20.000 of its British-built cars. American Motors are continuing to push the Austin-built Nash Metropolitans on to the market and as well are receiving a real stab in the arm with the latest Rambler, which is one of the smallest American cars on the market. It has a wheelbase

of 100 inches, only four inches longer than the small British Hillman Minx, and 2ft 3in shorter than the mighty Chrysler Imperial. Studebaker-Packard’s president (Mr H. E. Churchill) said his company’s new car is “what the American' public wants and has asked for, not what some designers for a mass-production firm imagine the public might accept three years from now. It is a car that customers, dealers, and our shareholders tell us they want and will buy.” More Economical

The new model will have a sixcylinder engine similar to that fitted in the company’s present Scotsman, but will be even more economical than the Scotsman, which is credited with 30 miles to the gallon. Both the bonnet and boot, for many years the focus of designers’ pens with long flowing lines, will be shortened. The company is aiming to sell the car below 1776 dollars (about £634), and may drop all its other models from production in a desperate effort to bring its books in to the black.

So far this year, StudebakerPackard has produced at an annual rate of only 45.000 cars, compared with 105,000 in 1956.