U.S. BOOM FOR SMALL EUROPEAN CARS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28801, 23 January 1959, Page 12

U.S. BOOM FOR SMALL EUROPEAN CARS

LOS ANGELES. SOMETHING more than a prosperous New Year—and in hard currency, too —is in store for European motor manufacturers, according to port officials here. Shipments of small foreign cars through the Port of Los Angeles broke all records and the demand shows no sign of slackening. hi the financial year ended last June, 38.250 cars—up 50 per cent, on s the previous year—rolled across. the wharves. In one today period in September, a record of 200 cars a day were unloaded as dealers stocked up for Christmas trading. Expansion Now the stevedoring firm which operates the port’s “auto terminal,” largest on the -American west coast, has expanded its facilities to accommodate 3000 import’d cars at one time. Southern California’s 9.000,000 people, including the Hollywood film colony, are wealthier than the national average. Dealers _re-

port, however, that the lower running costs of the small European cars are a big factor in their success; Port of Los Angeles statistics indicate that Germany, whose Volkswagen alone has been sold to more than 200,000 American families, is consistently the leading supplier of imported cars. French Cara . . Britain in recent months has lost second place to France, after big sales of the Renault and the introduction of the new Peugeot. Her total sales, however, are still expanding. This is because the market as a whole is incregsing, with each month’s imports half as big again as in the corresponding month a year ago. Italy, Sweden, and Japan are doing good business, too. European small cars first ventured into the American market as the "second-car” in a two-car family. A recent magazine-sur-vey shows, however, that today the majority of owners have no other car. Most of the owners surveyed said they would "buy European” again.