New Foreign Entries

Into the booming foreign-car sales race Italy's Fiat last week rolled its 116-in.-long, two-passenger "New 500" model, which it expects to start exporting to the U.S. this autumn. Fiat set an $800 price tag on the 500, hopes to accelerate its opening sales push in the U.S. (TIME, April 22), which sold 1,200 standard Fiats in the first two months.

Sweden's Volvo auto group, aiming for 12,000 U.S. customers in 1957, also brought out a new model. The new Volvo (Latin for "I Roll") is a two-door family sedan with an 85-h.p. engine, a top speed of 95 m.p.h. Its U.S. price of $2,235 includes heater, defroster, whitewall tires.

Many novel European models are running around U.S. streets, such as West Germany's three-wheeled Heinkels and Messerschmitts, which needle through traffic like grown-up scooters, can be parked head-on to the curb in only a 5-ft.-wide space. One of the bestselling of the gnatty new bug cars is Bavarian Motor Works' pyramid-shaped Isetta 300 (price: $1,048 and up), which has moved into more than 2,500 American garages this year. The Isetta has two widely spaced front wheels and two narrowly spaced rear wheels, speeds up to 62 m.p.h. on a 13-h.p. motorcycle engine, can accommodate two passengers (and a child), who enter by lifting the flat Plexiglas front.

West Germany's Isaria Maschinenfabrik has sold more than 2,000 of its 10-ft.-long, chest-high Goggomobils in the U.S. this year. The "Goggo" sedan rides on four 10-in. wheels, squeezes in four passengers, does 50 to 60 miles per gallon at speeds of up to 60 m.p.h. on a 17-h.p. engine.

Most foreign-car fans still prefer a larger, roomier model, such as West Germany's Volkswagen, Britain's Hillman Minx. Looking for a share of this market, France's Renault is plumping its racy (up to 75 m.p.h.), efficient (43 miles per gallon), economical (from $1,645) Dauphine. For American tastes Renault splashed the Dauphine with chrome trim, bolstered it with reinforced bumpers. U.S. reaction has been warm. Dauphine found 3,970 U.S. buyers in the first half of 1957, and second-half sales are accelerating so fast that Renault is now sending 140 Dau-phines a day to its 350 U.S. dealers.

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