AUTOS: Stripped-Down Entry

In the fight for the lower-priced car market, Studebaker Corp. this week rolled out a new entry, the Champion custom model. It is $78 cheaper than the company's previous lowest-price car, the Champion de luxe. Studebaker, which lopped $82 to $135 off its prices only six weeks ago, made the new cut by stripping the de luxe model of such items as arm rests, chrome and radiator ornament. (The new model put Studebaker in close price competition with the Big Three. At $1,519 (factory-delivered), the four-door Champion custom is still above the $1,450 Chevrolet and $1,471 Ford but below the $1,566 Plymouth.)

The move was not caused by slipping sales. Studebaker's retail deliveries in February were almost double those of February 1949, and the highest for any month in the company's history. Studebaker was simply looking ahead to fall, when the current booming market might well be gone.

General Motors Corp. had some good news to report. While its payroll was at an alltime peak of $1.4 billion in 1949 (v. $1.2 billion in 1948 and the previous record of $1.3 billion in 1944), G.M. had record net earnings of $656,434,242 on sales of $5,700,835,141—49% above 1948's record earnings. One reason: few strikes. "Such time as was lost for this reason," said G.M., "if averaged over all General Motors hourly rated employees in the U.S., would have amounted to only about 17 minutes per employee for the entire year. This is an outstanding record."