Closing In on Volkswagen

West Germany's Volkswagens came beetling into the U.S. auto market a decade ago, and started the compact trend. U.S. automakers managed to fight off the trend by joining it. Now they are fighting back on Volkswagen's home ground and challenging VW's lead as West Germany's fastest selling car by appealing to the German yen for more luxurious autos. In 1963's first nine months, VW's share of the burgeoning West German market dropped from 33% to 28%, while General Motors hiked its share from 18% to 23 1/2% and Ford rose from 14% to 16% .

Competition has sharpened because U.S. companies in the past year have brought out sleeker and more comfortable compacts, which the increasingly style-conscious West Germans are switching to. Opel's sales jumped spectacularly in 1963's first three quarters--up 39% to 228,000 cars. The rise was led by its new Kadett model, which is 6 in. shorter than the standard VW but roomier inside, and sells in Germany for $1,269 v. $1,245 for the VW. Ford's best seller is its new Taunus 12M, which is 7 in. longer than the Volkswagen and costlier ($1,370). Its success has lifted Ford's German sales by 23%, to 157,000 cars in 1963's first three quarters.

The Opel Kadett was rated highest among all small cars by Germany's controversial consumer magazine DM, which placed the VW second and called it "old-fashioned," estimating that it offered less comfort, visibility and speed than the Kadett. (The Ford Taunus 12M was rated lower because the testers faulted its road-holding.) Confident Volkswagen says that it could have sold more cars if it had only had enough manpower and plants--a shortage that the company is remedying by building one new plant and expanding two others. With a limited supply of cars, Volkswagen is concentrating mostly on sales abroad. Volkswagen figures that its sales in the U.S. will rise from last year's 232,000 units to 250,000 this year, and that its world wide sales will jump almost 10%, to $1.75 billion. In Germany, hopeful buyers still have to wait up to six weeks for delivery of a standard VW and three months for the company's bigger, costlier 1500 sedan (TIME, Sept. 27).

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