Business: 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...

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