Break With the Past

Two Detroit automakers reversed longstanding policies last week hoping to speed sales during the 1959 model year.

P: Buick, its production of '58s halted at 242,000, v. 400,000 in the '57 model year, has scrapped its boxy, overchromed styling, will turn out a comparatively chrome-free, conservative "comeback car" in a "complete break with the past." The longer, lower, wider '59, which will come out in mid-September, will taper from its flaring, high-finned rear to its shovel-snouted front. It will have slanting double headlights like the 1958 Lincoln's, and bigger front and rear windows. Only this year's toothy aluminum grille will remain.

P: Chrysler Corp., whose January-July production plummeted from 832,122 last year to 370,359 this year, will get into the small-car boom by marketing the French Simca. Chrysler bought a "substantial interest" in Simca, including Ford Motor Co.'s 15.2% of stock. The Simca, which looks like a kissing cousin to Renault's fast-selling Dauphine, last year almost tripled its U.S. sales to 5,766. Its major models range from the 57-h.p., four-cylinder, 96-in.-wheelbase Aronde, priced at about $1,700 in New York, to the 84-h.p., eight-cylinder, 106-in. Vedette at $2,200.

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