Compacts to the Fore

When the compact cars hit the showrooms last fall, Detroit's experts hoped that they might win 15% of the market. Last week the latest figures showed that the auto men had erred on the conservative side. To date, 687,821 compacts have rolled off the lines to capture 24.08% of the market; by the end of this week, the total will top 720,000.

The No. 1 car is still American Motors' Rambler, with almost 30% of compact sales. But Ford's Falcon is coming up fast. In the seven weeks from Jan. 1 to

Feb. 20, the Falcon outsold the Rambler 59,000 to 53,000 (Corvair sales: 29,400), although American Motors is still stepping up production to match orders. The Falcon's appeal is economy. Last week Ford discontinued its 128-h.p. engine, which it had offered as optional equipment to compete with the Corvair and Valiant (TiME, Feb. 1). Ford dealers had found few takers for the souped-up engine; compact buyers want economy, not pickup.

Four on the Line. Compact cars are doing so well that except for Cadillac and Lincoln, just about every auto division will have an entry by October.

All of G.M.'s medium-price divisions--Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick--are bringing out compact cars. The new models will not, despite the rumors, be deluxe versions of Chevy's Corvair, but slightly bigger, considerably more powerful cars with engines in front. All three will have a wheelbase of 112 inches, use the same body shell and many interchangeable parts. Buick and Olds will share the same engine, a scaled-down aluminum block V-8 that turns up 150 h.p.; Pontiac's engine will be a cast-iron, four-cylinder job, canted at a 45DEG angle, with an output of more than 125 h.p. To compete, Chrysler's Dodge division will bring out its own compact car next year. The styling will be new, but the basic car will be a Chrysler Valiant: same wheelbase, suspension and 101-h.p., six-cylinder engine. Tentative names: Lancer for the Dodge, Tempest for Pontiac, Rockette for Olds and Invader for Buick, though some dealers are agitating for a return to the old Special.

Midgets in the Studios. In addition, the Big Three are also testing several experimental smaller-than-compact models to compete against the European imports. Ford is farthest along, already has a proven power plant in the aluminum block, four-cylinder engine that runs its Jeep-like military vehicle called the Mutt, is trying it out on a 96-in. wheelbase. But neither Ford nor G.M. nor Chrysler plans to introduce its midget cars for 1961. First, Detroit wants to see how well the current crop of compacts do against the foreign cars. So far they are doing fine. On the latest reports, the European imports have skidded from 11.5% of the market last August to 8.7% of February sales.

The industry's official statistician, R. L. Polk & Co., last week totted up the final figures for calendar 1959. Total new car registrations: 6,026,500 cars, for the third best year on record, topped only by 1955 (7,169,908) and 1950 (6,326,438). The top five:

Ford 1,468,451

Chevrolet 1,416,076

Plymouth 388,772

Pontiac 381,827

Rambler 362,874

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