More for the Same?

Automakers long ago decided that the first postwar cars will be back-in-1942 models. The need for quick production will rule out Buck Rogerish creations of plastic and light metals. But automakers have not yet decided on prices. Last week the Wall Street Journal surveyed the industry, came up with some price predictions as hot as a blowout on a curve. The predictions: car prices may be up from 25 to 40% over 1941.

On this basis, sedan models of the lowest-priced group, Chevrolet, Plymouth and Ford, would retail for around $1,400. The predictions were based on:

1) come peace, the overall U.S. price level may be up 40% over 1941;

2) the auto industry hourly wage rates are already up about 15% over '41, and the powerful C.I.O.-U.A.W. is determined to keep them there.

But one factor may knock predictions into the junk pile -- unpredictable 80-year-old Henry Ford. For months, he has diligently streamlined his company, getting back to his first principles of cheap cars and no frills (TIME, Oct. 11). His low-price fetish once cracked the industry's price structure wide open. It may do so again.

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