Retreat from the Record

When all the U.S. auto-sales figures were added up for the calendar year 1966, it turned out to be the second best year ever. This brought no dancing in the streets of Detroit, since the automakers' sales of 8,373,502 cars represented a drop of 4.3% from the record 1965 sales of 8,750,881.

At that, the breakdown suggested that good styling and merchandising can offset unfavorable economic conditions. Chrysler, the only big automaker to register a gain, sold 1.8% more cars than the year before--with its well-promoted Dodge Division leading the way (see following story). Similarly, while General Motors suffered a 6.8% overall sales decline, Cadillac's sales were up 5%. For Pontiac, benefiting from the popularity of its intermediate Tempest, it was the fifth straight year of record sales. The big G.M. loser (off 11%) was Chevrolet, which held on to a slender 2,145,000-to-2,006,474 sales lead over the rival Ford Division. Ford itself sold 18,000 fewer cars than in 1965.

What most bothered Detroit was the prospect that its 1967 models would run into further decline. Last month, each of the Big Three sold fewer cars than in December 1965. Production schedules for this month call for an output of only 720,000 cars v. 816,000 last January. Last week Ford knocked off a production day at many of its plants, decided to drop a number of low-seniority workers altogether. Chrysler meanwhile shut down its St. Louis assembly plant for a week. Beleaguered American Motors, which suffered a 17.4% sales loss last year and is off to a slow start with its restyled 1967 models, this week will close its Milwaukee and Kenosha, Wis., plants for ten days, after that will lay off 4,100 workers.

The Safety Front. Another complication for the automakers is that they will be hit on Jan. 31 with the first set of federal safety standards, which will be mandatory for all 1968 models. Manufacturers last week notified National Traffic Safety Agency Administrator Dr. William Haddon Jr. that they would be unable to meet several requirements unless they are modified. Among the standards troubling some companies:

sb STRONGER SEAT-BELT ANCHORAGES. The agency's specifications might require major changes in floor and seat design.

sb SHOULDER HARNESSES. Suggesting that most people find them a nuisance, G.M. called for "future technological development to increase the level of public acceptance."

sb POSITIONING OF DASH-PANEL KNOBS. The agency wants them placed so that a shoulder-harnessed driver can operate them. Chrysler reported that its models were so designed that a short-armed woman driver could not reach them when harnessed in.

sb RAISED PARKING LIGHTS, REFLECTORS AND SIGNALING DEVICES. The agency says that these should be at least 20 inches above the ground. The only way to accomplish this on some models, said the automakers, is to mount lights on an unsightly bumper attachment.

Most of the misgivings boiled down to Detroit's insistence that not enough lead time remains for revisions before next fall's model introductions. Warned American Motors Vice President E. W. Bernitt: "Certain of the proposed standards, if made effective in their present form, would prohibit our company from marketing its 1968 models."

Amid all this, the auto industry had still other problems on the safety front. Since they became required to do so by U.S. law last September, foreign and domestic manufacturers have reported that some 800,000 late-model vehicles needed to be checked for possible safety flaws. The latest such announcement came last week: G.M. began recalling 269,000 of its 1967-model cars (Chevrolet Chevelles and El Caminos, Pontiac Tempests, Oldsmobile F-85s and Buick Specials), because of possible defects in their steering shafts. Such recalls do not mean that all the cars are defective. What they do mean is that Detroit is getting overly skittish about safety or else quality control on the assembly line is not all that it should be.

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