Even as their sales figures plummeted with last winter's temperatures, optimists among the nation's automakers clung to the prediction that 8,300,000 cars would be sold in the U.S. in 1967. This would make it the third best year in history, after 1965's record 9,300,000 sales and last year's 9,000,000. All that was needed, Detroit figured, was a springtime upturn in sales. This month, with spring in its waning days, something of the sort was finally evident.
First came the news that industry sales in May, with General Motors and Chrysler both registering gains, were up 7% over May 1966, the...