Growing Midget

Powel Crosley Jr., the big man (6 ft. 4 in.) with the midget car, this week introduced his new line of 1948 automobiles. Among them was the cheapest postwar model he has yet produced: a two-passenger multi-purpose sports and general utility car. The price: $799 f.o.b. Marion, Ind. It brought Crosley closer to his ambition of producing virtually the same car for $500 if prices of raw materials and other costs go down.

The same ambition was reflected in Crosley's other two new models: a two-door, four-passenger station wagon ($929, f.o.b.); a 1/4-ton-capacity panel delivery truck ($8.99 f.o.b.). Crosley considers himself in competition with the used car market. Said he: "I should like to make clear that our ambitions . . . are comparatively unpretentious."

But Powel Crosley had made a fairly pretentious start in carmaking. He began making cars in June of 1946 in two plants --in Cincinnati, Ohio and Marion, Ind. By the end of his first year he had turned out 16,637 cars, for a gross of $12,073,721 and a net profit of $476,065. By expanding the company's two factories, Crosley expects to step up the rate of production from a current 2,700 cars a month to 3,000 early in 1948.

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