Auto Surge

Surprising sales in May

Not so many weeks ago, when car sales were running like a dry creek, General Motors Chairman Thomas Aquinas Murphy told shareholders that he was sticking to his earlier forecast of a record year. In 1978, he confidently predicted, 15.5 million cars and trucks would be delivered, topping the 1973 record of 14.45 million.

Most other automen scoffed, but Murphy's optimism is being borne out. Sales of U.S. and foreign cars jumped 6% in May, to a 12.2 million annual rate, and trucks advanced 19%, to 4.3 million. That hot pace will not continue when the industry shuts down for model changeovers this summer, but total sales of more than 15 million now seem probable.

Customers have been motivated largely by fears of inflation: for the moment, at least, their attitude is buy now --before the price goes up. That could change, but in May, Ford Motor Co.'s sales were a bulging 19% higher than a year ago, and Chrysler and American Motors showed moderate to handsome advances. GM sold 716,000 cars during May, a record for any month.

Detroit's subcompacts did well against the imports, whose prices rose as the dollar sank relative to other currencies. Models such as Chrysler's Omni, Chevy's Chevette and Ford's Mustang II cut into foreign makers' share of the U.S. market and drove it down from 21% in January to 16.9% in May.

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