Wheels for All

"We are really concentrating on cars this year--cars that look well, run well, and are available to the ordinary citizen." So said an exhibitor last week of the biggest auto show ever held in the U.S. The Third International Automobile Show filled Manhattan's Coliseum with more than 600 cars from 68 automakers in nine countries, and as always the crowds clustered admiringly around the rich and the racy. Britain's famed Rolls-Royce showed off a new Silver Cloud convertible ($19,350); there was a 150-m.p.h. Aston Martin sports sedan ($9,870), a new French Facel-Vega sedan ($12,800), and a handsome roadster ($10,500) from Germany's B.M.W. But the real news this year was the continuing growth of the small-car market, and the automakers' pitch to the family that would rather spend its money on two modest cars than one superchariot.

Only a few years ago, the customer looking for a small economy car had a small choice. This year nearly 70% of the cars in the show--about 400 in all--sell for less than $3,000. For $4,000 (about the price of a Ford Thunderbird), the auto buyer can have anything but a few top models. Everybody is getting into the merchandising act, moving up, down, and all around to tap a foreign-car import market that is expected to top 500,000 units this year. Even England's staid old Daimler, best known for the limousines it builds for Britain's royal family, introduced a car specially designed for the U.S. market: a sleek, two-seater Daimler Dart sports car with speeds up to 123 m.p.h. and gas mileage of better than 30 miles per gal. On sale in the U.S. next year, the Dart will be priced at about $3,800. Some other show stoppers:

P: Britain's Austin-Healey Sprite, a junior edition of the popular Austin-Healey 100 sports car. It has seats for two, a convertible top, and a price tag suited to college-boy billfolds: $1,795. Another entry: the handsome AC Aceca hardtop coupe that seats two with plenty of luggage space, goes 106 m.p.h., and costs around $8,000.

P: Italy's Moretti Spyder four-cylinder convertible and Super Tourismo Coupe with top speed of 90 m.p.h. Price $2,995.

P: Holland's first U.S. entry, the DAF 600, a new five-passenger, two-cylinder family car with top speed of 57 m.p.h., 40 miles per gal. gas consumption. Price: $1,469.

P: Japan's Toyopet Crown Custom, a four-cylinder, four-door family car with top speed of 80 m.p.h., and 33 miles per gal. Price: $1,999.

P: West Germany's Wesphalia "camping bus," which looks like Volkswagen's utility bus, has beds for two in the back. Price: $2,195. A second German car: the NSU Sport Prinz with seats for four, a two-cylinder engine that gets 55 miles per gal., and a price of $2,245.

For the buyer seeking the ultimate in economy, Britain's York Noble Industries Ltd. had a new, fiber-glass-bodied Nobel 200, a tiny (672 lbs.), gas-saving (85 miles per gal.) bubble of a car that seats a family of four and goes as fast as 63 m.p.h. Lowest-priced auto at the show, the Nobel will sell for $998 complete, or $895 in a do-it-yourself, semi-knocked-down kit assembled in 100 man hours.

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