Autos: Shifting Down for the '70s

THE auto industry has traditionally prospered on what it likes to regard as a love affair between the American people and the car. Detroit sells its products not only as transportation but also as symbols of power, status or constantly renewable youth. But amid declining auto sales and a new public preoccupation with pollution, congestion and cost, some of the industry's leaders have concluded that the love affair has cooled. They believe that their market has changed, fundamentally and permanently. "I think the glamour of the automobile is decreasing," Henry Ford II told TIME Correspondent Peter Vanderwicken. "People are looking at it now as a machine to get from place to place to do something else."

In recognition of the trend, some automakers have shifted the emphasis in their advertising away from the themes of youth or power and toward value (TIME, Feb. 9). More and more customers are switching to smaller, less costly cars. Though standard-sized cars are still the largest sellers, they have taken the greatest percentage losses in this year's tough market. By contrast, compacts have done by far the best, posting an impressive sales increase of 52% last month over January 1969. Imports have increased their share of the market from 11% last year to 14%. The combination of these mostly utilitarian cars and the compacts now accounts for nearly one-third of all autos sold in the U.S.

Today, all four automakers have still smaller cars on the way to market. Called "subcompacts" for want of a better name, they are designed to compete directly in size and price with Volkswagens, Toyotas and Datsuns--just as the compacts were originally introduced in the 1950s to counter rising sales of imports. But while the compacts grew in size and power over the years, the automakers now are expected to pay Volkswagen something of a compliment of imitation by leaving their subcompacts basically the same in size and style from year to year. "New models every year and all this hoi-polloi about introductions and all that are becoming passe," says Henry Ford. "Planned obsolescence is out the window."

Sawed-Off Station Wagon. Last week American Motors showed off the first subcompact, the Gremlin.* It was, said A.M.C. President William Luneberg, purposely designed to be "a contentious car, and nobody will be neutral about it." That may well be true. On the outside the Gremlin resembles a sawed-off station wagon, with a long, low hood and swept-up rear, and is faintly reminiscent of the original Studebaker Avanti. Though the Gremlin is only two inches longer than the 159-in. Volkswagen, the elongated hood makes the difference seem considerably more. It is 10 in. wider than a Volks and gives a stable, quiet and relatively comfortable ride --for the two front passengers. Like some other cars of less than standard size, the back seat is designed for small children only.

The Gremlin's six-cylinder, 128-h.p. standard-equipment engine (compared with Volkswagen's 57 h.p.) gives it rapid acceleration. It will get around 23 miles to the gallon, v. Volkswagen's 26. In the basic two-passenger model, the Gremlin will sell for around $1,850. The list price just possibly may be brought down to $1,838, or $1 cheaper than a Beetle delivered in the Eastern

U.S. The four-passenger model, with popular options like a radio and automatic transmission, will run to more than $2,000.

The Gremlin will go on sale April 1 and will have the market to itself until around September, when competition will arrive in the form of General Motors' entry, unofficially called the GMini (pronounced either Jimini or Gee-mini). The G.M. subcompact will retail at around $1,900 in its basic model, will be lighter than the Gremlin--around 1,800 Ibs. to the Gremlin's 2,600 Ibs. --and have a smaller engine, producing approximately 100 h.p. The GMini is said to get 30 miles per gallon with manual transmission, and will have a swing-up rear end that will enable the fourseater to double as a station wagon. To produce it, General Motors is building a highly automated $150 million plant at Lordstown, Ohio.

Ford's subcompact, also scheduled for September, will be called either the Pony or Colt. It is a two-door fastback sedan with curving sides, an 86-h.p. engine and a price tag of under $1,900. Chrysler will be last in the subcompact field. Its entry, now code-named "25," is due to be introduced in 1971 and has so far been kept under close wraps.

Game Plan. The Gremlin appears to be the most original of the subcompacts in sight so far. Drawings show that the Ford and G.M. models will look basically like cut-down U.S. cars. American Motors, says Gerald C. Meyers, the company's vice president for product development, judged that "G.M. and Ford would be trying to mimic the imports. Our whole game plan was to do something that recognizes the virtues of the imports but fixes their faults." Surveys showed American Motors that buyers liked imported cars for their size, economy, reliability and fun-to-drive handling. They disliked the lack of power, sensitivity to side winds, over-steering, poor ventilation, noise and lack of space. To add stability, A.M.C. made the Gremlin heavier than the average import, with a weighty rear end that should minimize oversteering. It was also designed for easy servicing and inexpensive replacement of damaged parts. The grille is made of molded plastic, which yields slightly on impact and then snaps back into shape. If smashed, it can be replaced for probably less than $20. The dashboard is secured by only five screws and can be removed for repairing electrical wiring.

The Gremlin was also economical to design. Last fall American Motors introduced the compact (and now fast-selling) Hornet, which was built with the Gremlin in mind. The company designed the two cars with many identical parts, and thus was able to save on tools and dies. Tooling costs for the Gremlin were only a small fraction of the $30 million that American spent on the Hornet. If the Gremlin proves to be a disappointment, the manufacturer stands to lose relatively little. Next fall A.M.C. will introduce still another car, and it, too, will use the same tooling and many of the same basic components. These products are steps in American's plan to bring out a car every six months and have a completely new line by 1972.

U.S. automen generally anticipate that their market in the early 1970s will amount to about 10 million cars a year. American Motors' Chairman Roy Chapin expects that sales of imports over the next several years will decline from the 1,000,000 of 1969 to about 750,000, and that the market for subcompacts will climb to some 800,000. "The emphasis on smaller cars," says Chapin, "will come from all directions --traffic congestion, rising costs, multiple-car families. Our products, we believe, are right on target." Now the whole industry is zeroing in on that target.

*Defined by Webster's as "a small gnome held to be responsible for malfunction of equipment." American Motors' definition: "a pal to its friends and an ogre to its enemies."

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