The New Line-Up

January and February production figures for the auto industry, released in Detroit last week, solidly documented the comeback of Chrysler Corp. and the slump in General Motors. Jubilant Chrysler announced that Plymouth was now back in third place, which it lost to Buick in 1954. For the first two months of 1957, Plymouth turned out 128,228 cars as against 100,274 Buicks. For Chrysler President Lester Lum ("Tex") Colbert, that was only part of the good news. Every car in the Chrysler line showed substantial production gains. Overall Chrysler car output in February was up 63% over 1956. So far, Chrysler has produced better than its goal of 20%, v. 15% last year.

While Plymouth was pushing ahead of Buick, Ford was giving Chevrolet tough competition for first place, and in hopes of bigger sales, was actually outproducing Chevrolet. In the first two months Ford turned out 286,923 cars, up nearly 48,000 from last year, and some 10,000 ahead of Chevy. Overall, G.M.'s production was 10% under last year. Except for Pontiac and Cadillac, all of its divisions had trimmed production sharply, and G.M. was producing only 47% of the nation's cars v. 53% last year. Automen pointed out that production did not necessarily match sales, and the fact that Ford was outproducing Chevy did not necessarily mean it was also selling more cars.

For one measure of sales among the big three, automen checked the figures for Wayne County, Detroit's home base and one of the nation's best markets. Last year its January sales were close to the nationwide percentage. In January this year G.M. accounted for only 37% of Wayne County sales v. 53% in January 1956; Ford shot up to 38% v. 28% last year; and Chrysler rose to 22% v. 15% in 1956.

While some Detroiters gossiped that G.M., still scared by congressional investigations and antitrust threats, was purposely holding down production, few in the auto industry accepted that theory. The plain fact was that G.M.'s conservatively styled new models had not caught the fancy of the public as the more radical styling of Ford and Chrysler had. For this reason, automen thought that G.M. was probably gearing its production a bit closer to sales than either Ford or Chrysler. On the other hand, Ford's and Chrysler's models were selling so well that both were stepping up production to build up dealers' supplies for the spring upsurge they confidently foresee. On its part, G.M., while restoring some cutbacks (TIME, March 4), was still being cautious. With sales behind last year, G.M. will not believe in a spring upsurge until it actually starts.

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