Autos: Next: the 10 Million Year?

Auto-company executives, like election candidates, have never been known to poor-mouth their prospects. So when automen early this year talked down economic uncertainties and talked up a robust 9,000,000-car sales year, it seemed like just more chrome from Detroit’s brass. Not any more, though. The way auto sales are going, the industry may find itself for once guilty of understatement.

Last week the automakers reported that in August new-car sales totaled 635,101 autos, a 22.8% increase over August 1967 and 4.2% ahead of the all-time record August of 1965. Chrysler led the way, with a sales rise of 35% over the same month last year. But big gains were also made by General Motors (26.8%), American Motors (27%) and Ford (8.9%). All told, it was the fourth record month in a row, and sales are now running at an annual rate of 10 million cars.

Price Scare. The industry is understandably jubilant. At a time of year when they are often backing down, automen are happily revising earlier forecasts upward. Chrysler President Virgil Boyd, in one of the year’s more conservative estimates, predicts that 9.3 million car sales are pretty much a certainty. That might very well push 1968 over 1965, when the total sales, including 575,000 imports, added up to a record 9,313,912 cars.

Not too many months ago, there seemed to be no happy ending in sight for 1968. When sales failed to rebound strongly from the auto strikes of late 1967, Henry Ford II could only say that sales were “not as good as we hoped.” Since then, of course, the prospects have altered dramatically. Currently, dealers are getting a lot of sales mileage from the widespread expectation that inflation and the cost of mandatory safety items will add $100 to $125 to car prices next year. In one recent newspaper ad, the “Dodge Boys” urged customers to buy now to “beat the 1969 price increase.” From all accounts, the “price scare” promotion is working well.

Fast, Period. Customers who do hold off until next year can expect evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, changes. Following the pattern of Chrysler, first of the Big Three to display its 1969s (TIME, Aug. 30), Ford and G.M. will offer minor styling changes on most models, major restyling on only a few. At Ford, the major work has been done on the full-size cars, including the LTD, which will be wider and lower, boast such features as a “flight cockpit” instrument array, a short rear deck and the long hood that is fast becoming a Detroit cliche. Mustang, the car that inspired the look, is becoming fast, period. Next year’s “Mach 1” model will be able to live up to the name of its “Cobra Jet Ram-Air V8” engine. Top speed: 150 m.p.h.—plus.

At General Motors, Pontiac will feature a 1969 Grand Prix boasting the longest hood in the industry and superthin wires across the windshield to take the place of the traditional radio antenna that usually rises from a fender. The big Oldsmobiles are in for the biggest changes. They will remain big, but their pudgy ’68 bodies will give way to more severe trim and styling.

Though four months of hard selling remain in 1968, automen are already looking ahead to a brave new year. Ford Vice President Lee lacocca, for one, says that sales will probably level off at 9,000,000 or so in 1969, but he finds “no reason why we couldn’t have a 10 million-car year.” Right now, no one is willing to bet that he is wrong.