Surprise

Automobile tire sales were ballooning. A severe winter slump had persuaded tiremakers that they were up against a postwar decline,* and they had gone after customers with talk of new styles and promises of greater comfort. Firestone brought out a low-pressure "super balloon tire", U.S. Rubber an "Innacush" (industrial solid tire), and Goodrich a tubeless tire. But buyers hardly noticed the new offerings; they just needed tires all of a sudden, and standard models were plenty good enough.

Tire men happily admitted that they had badly misjudged demand. With over 4,000,000 cars and trucks coming off assembly lines this year, they now thought they could sell 80 million tires in the next twelve months. That would keep production one-fourth above the prewar level well into 1949.

* As Department of Commerce figures for the first six months of 1948 had indicated (TIME, Aug. 30).

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