Detroit at Work

Out on General Motors' testing grounds at Detroit one day last week, Chevrolet rolled its 1961 models for a press preview of the most complete line of compacts of any U.S. automaker. The new Corvair line includes all but a convertible, extends even into compact buses, until now turned out only by European automakers. The new models:

P:The Greenbrier Sports Wagon, which closely resembles the Volkswagen Micro-Bus, with the driver's seat set over the front axle in a boxlike body over a 95-in. wheelbase. The Greenbrier, turned out in gay colors and suitable as a small bus, mobile office or camping car, carries up to nine passengers. There is a panel version of the Greenbrier for use as a delivery van. P:Two pickup trucks that are built on the same short wheelbase as the Greenbrier and have a closed cab with open cargo space behind. One of the models has a side ramp for easy loading. P: A four-door, six-passenger station wagon on a 108-in. wheelbase.

The Corvair sedan is virtually unchanged in appearance. Major mechanical improvement: an air heater that takes its heat from the engine replaces the gasoline heater, which sometimes costs Corvair drivers as much as eight miles per gallon in winter.

Smaller Big Cars. The standard-size Chevrolet is also getting the neat, compact look. Gone are the flamboyant fins; the rear is trim and flat. The car is also getting smaller, is 2.4 in. narrower and 1.5 in. shorter.

Oldsmobile, which last week introduced its F85 (TIME, Aug. 8), first of the General Motors luxury compacts, has also cut the size of its standard cars by as much as 51 in. in length and 3 1/2 in. in width.

Chevy Chief Edward N. Cole is not only optimistic about Chevy's sales but about those for the whole industry. Chevy is heading toward its best year in history, has sold more than 1,200,500 cars, up 15% over 1959, with the Corvair accounting for almost all of the increase. Looking ahead, Ed Cole predicts sales of 7,000,000 for the auto industry in 1961, including some 450,000 foreign-car sales, or about 200,000 more than expected this year.

Clouding Cole's rosy prediction is a record number for this time of year of 850,000 new cars in dealers' hands, enough to last for about 56 days at the current rate of sales and 125,000 more cars than were on hand last year. To move them, automakers are offering bonuses to dealers as high as $250 for each sale, but many automen candidly admit that much of the steam was stolen from the cleanup drive by similar bonus sales held last spring.

The Production Push. So far this year, the U.S. auto industry has sold 3,990,470 cars, 37% increase over 1959, but sales have dipped for the past two months below the 1959 rate. Despite the slump, automakers cranked up production on 1961 models earlier than usual, allowed a much shorter shutdown period for dealers to clean up 1960 models. Last week the industry's output was 36% higher than the week before and nearly triple the production of the same period last year. Either sales will have to pick up or production will have to be cut down.

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