Love Affair in Germany

The market is worth maybe $2 billion a year, which in Detroit's terms is penny ante. But sales abroad of cars made in the U.S. are rapidly increasing. General Motors last year exported 125,000 cars, up from 98,000 in 1977, and both Ford and Chrysler are doing well. The strongest demand is from Western Europe, especially Switzerland, Belgium and the country where people have prided themselves on making some of the world's best cars, West Germany.

For years the Germans, along with other Europeans, spurned Detroit's chromed giants as only suitable for nouveau riche butchers, high-mark call girls and mobsters. They were just too large, too showy and too expensive compared with the better-quality German models. Now, the weak dollar and the U.S. automakers' new enthusiasm for safety and economy are beginning to make the Ami Strassenkreuzer (literally, Yankee street cruiser) a fast-selling status symbol among the young professional elite.

This year Germany's 110 U.S. car dealers expect to sell about 20,000 imports from America, more than in the previous eight years all together. Auto-Becker of Duesseldorf, the country's largest U.S. dealer, is spending $6 million to expand its showroom and hopes to sell 2,000 cars, up from 850 in 1978 and only 250 in 1977. "It is the In thing to own an American-made car now," explains Helmut Becker, sales manager for the firm. Adds Peter Baumgarten, a GM salesman in Munich: "West German prosperity has increased the size and price of German cars, while congested cities and autobahns have created a need for the kind of comfort European cars lack. At the same time, American cars have become more economical.

"The buyers are individualists," continues Baumgarten, "the architects, advertising people and journalists." One reason for the rising demand is the immediate delivery offered on most American cars, unlike the long waits for Audis, BMWs and Mercedes.

The biggest draw is price. In West Germany, a Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang cost about $10,400 each, compared with the sticker price of $9,700 for a VW Passat (which is called Dasher in the U.S.). The Chevy Caprice sells for about $14,000, or $1,000 less than the top-line Audi 100LS and $2,000 less than the BMW 525. Indeed, the dollar has declined so much that in some European countries, U.S. cars cost less than they did last year.

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