Business: Wheeling Toward 10 Million

Just before the start of the 1960s, Edward N. Cole, then a General Motors vice president, exuberantly forecast that before the decade was over Detroit would sell 10 million cars in a year. Cole has since been promoted to the presidency of the world’s biggest manufacturer, partly because of his record of seeing the future clearly, but his fellow automakers have yet to prove him right in his most optimistic prediction. This year, however, they will come tantalizingly close.

When the ’69 models were introduced in October, the industry had its best one-month record in history, selling 886,000. In November another 786,000 new cars were sold. That was predictably fewer than in the previous month of model introductions, the usual early impulse buying and fleet orders; still the total was 27% higher than in November 1967. This month the automakers are scheduling about 8% more production than in last December. Ford Vice President Matt McLaughlin sums up the expansive mood: “It looks like the question will not be whether we’ll break 9,500,000 or even 9,600,000 this year, but whether we can reach 9,700,000.”

If so, sales will surpass the all-time peak of 9,300,000 set in 1965. Purists may note that this year’s total will include about a million imports, way up from 600,000 in 1965, but that scarcely diminishes the cheer at the Detroit Athletic Club. All the automakers are marketing more than last year, when a strike at Ford stalled production, and sales amounted to 8,300,000. Ford has won a 27% share of this year’s bigger market, a gain of 2.8 percentage points, mostly at the expense of General Motors, whose share is 51.8%, down three points. Chrysler has advanced much in sales and a bit in market share, with 18%, while American Motors continues to hold 3%.

What They Bought. The ’69 model buyers tend to go to extremes in their choices. Luxury cars and economy compacts are both selling well, proving Detroit’s contention that there are two ways for the market to grow. The fastest-rising car is Pontiac’s Grand Prix, which has an electric rear-window defroster and the longest hood in the industry and retails for $3,777 without extras. Pontiac sold 24,874 of them in October and November, more than during all of the 1968 model year.

Buyers are also ordering many more accessories, including air conditioners, push-button windows and supersize engines. In 1966 only 12% of the buyers wanted vinyl roofs; now 33% do—at an extra cost of $80 to $100. Power steering is ordered with 80% of the cars, up from 66% two years ago, and 90% have automatic transmissions.

While such options may enhance appearance, convenience or safety, they also figure in the high cost of repairs.