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Perfume & Promotion. This week the Chevrolet began its competition for the customer's dollar in a circus atmosphere whooped up by the country's 7,500 Chevrolet dealers. Outside the Chevrolet agencies, hundreds of machines spewed forth varicolored bubbles by day; by night huge spotlights swiveled their beams across the sky. Dealers hung up miles of flags, banners and placards, hired clowns and calliopes, rented dinner jackets for their salesmen, splashed teaser ads through the press.* They spent $3,500,000 on promotion, giving away 2,131,000 balloons, 1,016,920 bottles of Prince Matchabelli perfume, hundreds of thousands of pencils, yardsticks, potholders, key cases and beanies. With the help of all this razzle-dazzle, Chevrolet Division Manager Tom Keating expects 20 million people to troop through his showrooms in the next few days.
What they will see is an auto that is new from rubber to roof, with the large-car look of an Oldsmobile. Long before his predecessor at G.M., Defense Secretary Charlie Wilson, made his crack about bird dogs and kennel dogs (TIME, Oct. 25), Curtice described the new Chevrolet as having "a hound-dog look"—long, low and forward-plunging. The same overall length (196 in.) as last year, the new Chevvies are lower by 2.6 in. to 6.3 in. (for the station wagon), have two inches more hip and shoulder room inside. With wrap-around windshields, they have 18% more glass area and visibility; the station wagon even has wrap-around rear windows. Tubeless tires are standard equipment. Optional: power brakes that keep their power even when the engine is stalled, power steering, pushbutton windows, a two-way power seat, and an air-conditioning unit (about $150 extra) that fits under the hood, thus takes up no baggage space.
For the first time Chevvy has a V-8 engine of 162 h.p. With special carburetor and exhaust (available as optional equipment), it can be stepped up to 180 h.p. Chevvy's six-cylinder engine has been boosted from 115 to 136 h.p. Prices will be about the same as this year.
Variable Pitch. While Chevrolet is G.M.'s biggest news for 1955, its four other auto divisions have spent another $300 million to retool, by far the biggest new model outlay in G.M.'s history. This week Pontiac's 4,047 dealers are also showing off their 1955 entries. The new Pontiac is 2½ in. lower and as much as 3.5 in. longer than this year's. The new V-8 engine has stepped horsepower up from 127 to 180, and an optional carburetor will boost it to 200 h.p. Buick, Olds and Cadillac, which made complete model changes last year, have only face-lifted the models to be shown in the next few weeks. But there are dozens of engineering changes. Cadillac has a 260-h.p. engine, up from 230. In its new Dynaflow transmission, Buick has new, variable-pitch blades that change their angle as the accelerator is pressed to the floor, adding a big extra kick for passing. And the Century and Roadmaster have boosted horsepower from 195 and 200 respectively to 236 h.p. In a few months Buick and Olds will both have a brand-new model: a four-door hardtop that has the sporty look of the two-door models, plus the roominess of a sedan.