The British Are Coming!

The first postwar car to go on sale in the U.S. arrived in New York by ship this week. It was a small, British-built, ten-horsepower Austin sedan. It was also the first evidence that Britain is in a hurry to carry out her export policy. The Austin will be followed by 20 more export models (which have chrome trimmings and leather upholstery, missing from domestic models) due in the U.S. within two weeks. Another 15 are en route to Argentina. Austi-Motor Co., Ltd. has been able to get its postwar jump on U.S. automakers because it really never stopped Austin production: the Austin-made British jeep, a utility truck, was built on the same chassis as the civilian models. Austin expects to turn out 8,000 cars by year's end, expects to send the U.S. market about 30% of its output. To do this as well as export to other countries, Britons will be pinched. They will get only 50% of Austin's output.

But Detroit's motormakers are not wor ried. The U.S. has never cared much for Austin-sized cars; nor will it like the price, upwards of $1,200. But U.S. Distributer John Lawrence Green is optimistic, eventually hopes to sell 25,000 Austins a year.

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