Swing back to U.S. cars

Press, 18 January 1979, Page 16

Swing back to U.S. cars

Motoring

NZPA staff correspondent Washington"

Sales of American-made cars in the United States reached 9,300,000 in the 1978 calendar year, the best tally since 1973 and the third highest on record.

Dealers delivered 9.284.981 American-made cars in the 12-month period. 2.3 per cent ahead of 1977’s 9.104.454. Counting booming truck sales and imports, the industry will have sold a record 15,400,000 cars and trucks in 1978. up 3.6 per cent from the record set in 1977.

Foreign car sales slipped about 3.3 per cent last year but imports still enjoyed their second best year in this country. Americans bought an estimated 1,990,000 foreign cars during the year, down from 2,070,000 in 1977. Imported cars’ share of the market declined from 18.5 per cent to 17.7 per cent. The decline was blamed on repeated major price increases forced by the falling American dollar and increased competition from American manufacturers. The rate of new-car sales in the United States, imports included, rose about 0.5 per cent in December from a year earlier.

The industry giant. General Motors, had a record year, selling more than 7,000,000 cars and trucks within the United States for the first time. Chevrolet was the only G.M. division

that did not sell a record number of cars during 1978.

G.M. delivered 5.400,000 cars during the year, up 4.9 per cent on 1977. and increased its domestic market share to 58 per cent.

The Ford Motor Company’s sales increased 1.5 per cent to 2.300.000. but the Chrysler Corporation's sales were down 5.7 per cent at 1.100,000 and American Motors Corporation’s deliveries fell 7.2 per cent to 170.000.

Toyota and Datsun, the two top foreign sellers, saw their 1978 sales trimmed 10.1 per cent and 12.6 per cent respectively. Volkswagen slipped 7.9 per cent and was replaced in the No. 3 spot by Honda, which posted a whopping 23.5 per cent sales jump. Leading importers, with the 1977 figures in parenthesis:—

Toyota. 441,800(493.048). 1; Datsun, 338,605 (388,378), 2; Honda, 274,876 (223,633), 3: Volkswagen, 239,306 (260,702). 4; Subaru, 103,274 (80,826), 5; Fiesta, 76.145 (40.549), 6: Mazda. 75.309 (50.608), 7; Fiat, 60.435 (63,479), 8; Volvo. 50.177 (45,991), 9: British Levland, 47,885 (68,731), 10."

Other imports:—Colt 44,570, Mercedes - Benz 42,950, Audi 40,878, BMW 28,776, Arrow 28,296, Opel 19,222, Challenger 17,649, Porsche 17,017, Saab 15,406, Renault 15,387, Sapporo 12,777, Peugeot 9061, Alfa-Romeo 6237, Capri 4079, Lancia 2811.