AUTOS: Onto 1958

Detroit’s automakers totted up their production for the first half of 1957 last week, and got a pleasant surprise. With output of 3,370,100 units in the opening six months, the industry was a full 5.6% ahead of 1956 and enjoying its second-best year in history, behind only record 1955. Yet few huzzas were heard. With dealer stocks of unsold cars approaching the 800,000 mark, every automan knows that he will have to really hustle to sell Detroit’s goal of 6,000,000 cars in 1957, and work even harder in 1958.

Behind the industry’s locked and guarded doors last week, the new models were already being warmed up for their attack on the 1958 market, and no one was taking much for granted. Ford will introduce a brand-new car in its medium-priced Edsel, G.M.’s Chevrolet and Pontiac and Ford’s Lincoln will be completely done over.

Emergency at G.M. With its share of the auto market down to about 41% so far this year, General Motors will spend between $500 million and $600 million, probably more than any other company, to make sure that it does not miss igsS’s style parade, as it did this year. Since both Buick and Oldsmobile had completely new bodies in 1957, they were slated for only a minor touch-up in 1958. But the competition from Ford’s and Chrysler’s low-and medium-priced designs has been so rugged that G.M. put on a crash redesign program, has revamped both cars completely. The General Motors line for 1958:

CHEVROLET will be 5 in. longer, 3 in. lower (but still 1.5 in. higher than Chrysler’s 1957 Plymouth), will get a new body and frame, a smoother-riding rear suspension and a bigger engine. One big styling change: new heavy tail fins, which jut out at a 45° angle.

PONTIAC will also get a wheel-to-roof new styling job, emphasizing a flat, low hood and a smooth, long-looking line. Engines will be slightly more powerful, and air suspension will be optional. One newcomer: the Ventura, a super-sporty hardtop convertible with a beefed-up engine.

BUICK and OLDSMOBILE will both get major styling surgery, especially Buick, which will probably lose its No. 3 spot to Plymouth this year. Buick, tossing away its unsightly 1957 roof struts and chopped-up rear windows, will have a smooth roof, wrap-around rear window, a revamped grille, dual headlights and tail fins.

CADILLAC will have a new hood, grille, fenders and rear quarter panels, bear a strong resemblance to the $13,074 (f.o.b. Detroit) Cadillac Eldorado Brougham. Dual headlights and air suspension will be standard items. Cadillac will also have, a fuel injection system.

Chrysler & Ford. Chrysler, which made its big change last year and won back a 20% share of the market, will only freshen its fins, wait until 1960 for a major styling change, figuring that 1957’s radical styling changes will keep it right up with the pack. Beyond higher horsepower, revised grilles and molding sweeps, all models from Plymouth through Imperial will be virtually unchanged, allowing the company to concentrate on higher production, better distribution and quality control to eliminate the one serious complaint of 1957: lack of structural rigidity, which engineers hope to solve by strengthening the frame.

Ford plans major changes, hopes in 1958 to add even more to its 30.1% of the market (up 3.5% from last year). Chief Designer George Walker, who has been responsible for much of Ford’s long, low styling since 1949, has primped every member of the family to provide something for all pocketbooks and tastes. The new Ford look:

EDSEL, first of the 1958 models (to be introduced on Aug. 27) and a car that cost Ford $250 million to get ready for production, is no radical car of the future. Yet it has enough new gadgets to intrigue most motorists, e.g., an elaborate dashboard whose speedometer glows red when the car reaches a preset speed, an automatic transmission with buttons in the center of the steering wheel. The engine will be a V-8 with a horsepower rating around 300.

FORD, leading Chevrolet for the No. 1 spot in 1957, aims to sew up the lead in 1958. It will be even flashier, with a startling new grille, dual headlights and enormous taillights running horizontally across the rear end of the car. To compete with Chevy’s new engine, Ford will bring out a bigger (332 cu. in.) V-8 for its Fairlane series. Another big change: Ford’s 1958 Thunderbird will jump into the family-car class with a new 113-in.-wheelbase model that has a back seat.

MERCURY will be toned down for a more subdued appearance, will get a bigger (383 cu. in.) engine and a new prestige model called the Olympian with a 125-in. wheelbase v. 122 for standard Monterey and Montclair lines.

Ford has completely restyled the 1958 Lincoln. The Mark II Continental has been discontinued, but Ford has saved the name for its highest-priced Lincoln, which will be set apart by different trim, quality gadgets such as a retractable back-up light. Ford hopes to make Lincoln 1958’s handsomest auto. In any case, it will certainly be the largest—229 in. in overall length, 3 in. longer than Chrysler’s Imperial, and 9 in. longer than G.M.’s competing Cadillac.