Autos: New Shape at Ford

Introducing its 1964 cars to the press last week, Ford permitted newsmen to race them up the punishing road to the top of Pikes Peak. Ford was trying to prove that its cars are rugged as well as radically restyled, but there was also a bit of symbolism involved. The ’64s represent Ford’s big bid to carry its sales back to the peak they reached before sliding from 30% of the market two years ago to 23% early this year. Detroit blames the sales decline on Ford’s failure during the era of ex-President Robert S. McNamara to or der long-range styling changes as sweeping as those of its competitors (TIME, March 29).

Just before he left for Washington, McNamara, who had concentrated mostly on upgrading Ford’s quality, began to remedy the styling shortcomings. Lately Ford has climbed back to nearly 25% by stressing speed, winning splashy victories at every major stock-car race. President Arjay Miller aims to go higher. Ford has spent more than $300 million on Detroit’s most extensive model changes for ’64.

Racy & Jaunty. Except for the intermediate-sized Fairlane, all the new Fords look quite different from the ’63s:

∙THE FALCON, unchanged for four years, doffs its rounded, utilitarian look for squared-off lines with sculptured side panels that Detroit likes to call “racy, jaunty.”

∙STANDARD-SIZED FORDS look longer, lower, sleeker, with a wide grille of thin horizontal bars, and a sloping roof replacing the squared-off Thunderbird top that had become a Ford trademark.

∙THE THUNDERBIRD has replaced its bulbous, rounded front end (the most criticized styling feature of the 1961-63 series) with a hood and grille that strongly resemble the angular T-Bird styling of 1957 to 1960. The ’64 T-Bird also offers a reclining front passenger seat with headrest, seat belts that retract automatically into small containers when not in use, and red lights that blink warnings when seat belts are not fastened or doors improperly closed.

Ford is abandoning the basic style it has held to for the past six years, which has become stale in the showrooms. More important, the company decided to end the strong look-alike appearance that blurred the difference between its high-priced cars and its low-priced lines. Ford will go even further in quest of a speedy “playboy” image by bringing out a four-passenger sports car priced under $2,500, which it will introduce at the New York World’s Fair next spring. As a teaser last week, Ford showed off an Allegro “dream” sports car; it will never go on sale, but its front end bears a striking resemblance to that of the forthcoming sports car.

Confidence & Criticism. The Ford Division’s tough, aggressive boss, Lee lacocca, 38, last week predicted that in 1964 the auto industry will sell more than 7,000,000 cars for the third year in a row and that Ford’s new models will give it the best production for any quarter in its 60-year history. But he mixed his confidence with some surprising criticism of Ford’s former top leadership: “We can look anyone in the eye now and say we have the best cars in the industry. We couldn’t do this until recently.”