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Chrysler, longer & lower, comes in six models, 26 body types, which all look alike, have fenders that flow into the body, wider front & rear seats, heavier lines, safety signals for all gauges. Rear axles have been moved back, motors up. Prices: $895 to $2,445.
Crosley goes to its first automobile show with two diminutive passenger numbers (120 in. overall): a convertible coupé at $325; convertible sedan at $350. A shade larger (5 in. more wheelbase) than competitor Bantam, it claims 45 miles per gallon for its two-cylinder, air-cooled motor, is proud of its new half-ton station wagon, pastel blue delivery truck.
De Soto could be mistaken for any Chrysler from the rear, comes with or without running boards. With square-bottomed, straight-sided doors, its twelve models (100-h.p. engines) are priced at $845 to $1,290.
Dodge threw away all of its '39 body dies this year, started over. Result: It looks like the Chrysler (arched roof, layback windshield, V-slant radiator grille). In three Special models, seven De Luxe, it sells for $755 to $1,170.
Ford. Two V-8s (60 or 85 h.p.), six De Luxe models are Henry Ford's 1940 gift to U. S. motorists. Prices: $600 to $920. Appearance: racier, longer than '39. Standard on all models is the steering-post gearshift.
Graham, for whom RFC has approved a $2,000,000 loan, has 14 body types virtually unchanged from 1939. Most novel plan of its new executive vice president, August Johnson, is to sell 1940 cars to dealers at a secret price, let them make their own prices. He has also leased the old Cord dies with which Hupmobile turned out a handful of '39 Skylarks, plans to make the Hupp car and one for himself to sell as a low-cost companion to the big Graham.
Hudson introduces a snappy, new low-price six, the Traveler, ballyhoos its independent front wheel suspension with centre point steering. Low-slung, sleeker than last year's models, its line of sixes and eights is priced from $670 to $1,118. Standard on all models is a combination parking lamp and directional signal.
Hupmobile, trying hard to pull itself out of the ruck, turned out only 1,000 automobiles last year (mostly Senior Sixes; a few handmade Skylarks). Bolstered by a $900,000 RFC loan, its 1940 plans are hazy. Back at work, grey-haired John Walter Drake (64), Hupp founder & first president (1908), hopes to catch up by dovetailing production with Graham-Paige, concentrating on Skylarks (price: unavailable).
LaSalle is longer, lower, hyped up (130 h.p.), sells for $1,240 to $1,800.
Lincoln unchanged from 1939 is a custom-built job at $4,800 to $7,100.
Lincoln-Zephyr ($1,360 to $2,840) has two new models (club coupé, continental cabriolet). New Zephyrs are larger, longer, lower, knife-nosed.
Mercury, in its second year, has five models with a new convertible sedan thrown in, flaring chromium radiator grilles, a tony, silver-blue interior. Prices: $920 to $1,180. New wrinkles: torsion bar ride stabilizer for handling side-sway.
Nash offers 18 models in its three series of sixes and eights, looks like a Nash from the front, like a Lincoln-Zephyr from the rear. Priced from $795 to $1,295, it has such things as Sand Mortex (sound proofing), Fabreeka (high-efficiency insulation), beds in all sedans, "Weather Eye" airconditioning.