AUTOS: On the Slow Road

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At Hollywood's imperial-sized Palladium ballroom. 1,850 members of the Los Angeles Motor Car Dealers Association gathered for a $5-a-plate breakfast and a lecture from one of the industry's top salesmen. After the ham and scrambled eggs, Chevrolet National Advertising Director William G. Power, as fervent a car salesman as ever lived, gave the dealers representing every U.S. make his considered opinion of the current state of the U.S. auto business. Said Bill Power: "Gentlemen, for 30 long years I've spent my life trying to kick hell out of Ford and Plymouth—and here we are all together. Brother, we're in trouble."

Detroit's trouble in 1958 is only too evident on the sales graphs. Last week's reports showed a slight upturn in the last ten days of April. But for the first four months of the year, the industry is down a crushing 33%—and there are few signs of the traditional spring upsurge. Across the nation, automen frantically poured on the oldfashioned, hand-pumping hard sell, hurled themselves into door-to-door sales drives and marathon "cold turkey'' telephone campaigns. Chicago salesmen sported handkerchiefs hopefully—but falsely —embroidered "Business Is Good." In St. Louis, Milwaukee, Dallas, Atlanta. "You Auto Buy Now" campaigns assaulted the public pocketbook. With an assist from Chevy Salesman Power, New York dealers kicked off their campaign with Ringling Bros. circus acts at a monster Madison Square Garden rally. In Los Angeles, a parade of new cars led by a show girl in a pink, fur-trimmed Thunderbird implored everyone to buy, buy, buy. But the air was also filled with discordant notes. As the "You Buy" cavalcade rolled down Hollywood Boulevard, a motorist cruised up in a weary 1955 Chevrolet sedan that was equipped with a loudspeaker blaring angrily: "It's too late now! You're too far gone! Get your prices down! Get your prices down!"

"Hate-Autos Year." If prices are part of Detroit's trouble, they are far from all of it. For a nation on wheels, the plight of the auto industry is a matter of intense popular concern. Many a U.S. male prizes his auto above all other possessions—sometimes even his wife. Since there are 80 million drivers, there are 80 million experts on cars—and naturally, on the industry that produces them. Thus Detroit has become the center of a vast family argument. Everyone has something to say about the 1958 cars. Some of the charges are right on the beam; others are wildly exaggerated. President Eisenhower shot a thinly veiled barb at the industry. Senator Estes Kefauver, no man to watch the votes go by, loudly proclaimed that he, for one, was not buying a car because everyone knew that prices are too high. Drivers who have never peeked under the hoods of their cars are sure they know precisely what ails Detroit.