Business: Big Surge in Smaller Cars

And foreign ones, collectively, move up to No. 2 in the market

One bright spot in the U.S. economy in 1979 was the surprising decline in gasoline use, which was off 4.9% from the previous year. Rising fuel costs are finally prodding Americans to cut back on consumption, and the need for this becomes more acute all the time; indeed, last week Venezuela, Libya, Indonesia and Iraq announced price hikes of 10% to 15%, which could add 5¢ to 7¢ per gal. to the wholesale price of imported oil and a few cents more to...

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