(See Cover) Not since Henry Ford put the nation on wheels with his model T has such a great and sweeping change hit the auto industry. Out from Detroit and into 7,200 Chevrolet showrooms this week rolled the radically designed Corvair, first of the Big Three's new generation of compact cars. Smaller and simpler than Detroit's chromespun standards, the Corvair is like no other model ever mass-produced in the U.S.; its engine is made of aluminum and cooled by air, and it is mounted in the rear. To Chevrolet's folksy, brilliant General Manager Edward N. Cole, 50, who is as square and compact (195 Ibs., 5 ft. 9 in.) as a Corvair, the new car marks the fulfillment of a 15-year dream; for that long, off and on, he has been trying to produce a rear-engine car. Says Ed Cole jubilantly: "If I felt any better about our Chevy Corvair, I think I'd blow up."
Many of the nation's drivers are just as excited. No sooner had Chevrolet announced the Corvair than it began to write orders. Hertz Rent-A-Car signed up for 3,000. Chicago Dealer Zollie Frank wanted 10,000, but Chevy turned him down to spread the supply. St. Louis Dealer Gene Jantzen has a unique ringside seat in the small-car derby; his showroom is right across from a Chevy assembly plant. Says he: "People toured that plant and peeked through the knotholes at the Corvair. Some even climbed atop their cars outside the plant to get a look. Then they came over to our place and ordered a Corvair." So far, Chevy has totted up 33,000 Corvair orders.
"The Most Interesting Year." The other Detroit compact cars are also firing up great expectations in the marketplace. Next week Ford, rushing up its introduction by two months to catch Corvair, brings out its front-engine Falcon. Late this month Chrysler, advancing its debut from February 1960, bows with its front-engine Valiant.
This is just a prelude. Next spring Ford will roll out a compact Edsel called Comet. In a year Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac will come in both compact and regular sizes. All told, Detroit is betting $700 million on these cars—about $150 million on the Corvair, $100 million each for Falcon and Valiant, $350 million for the "bigger" compacts. How well this huge gamble pays off will affect not only Detroit, but automakers and buyers round the world. Says West Germany's Heinz Nordhoff, president of Volkswagen, with some understatement: "1960 will be the most interesting year in the history of the U.S. automobile industry."
Chevy's Ed Cole predicts that the 1960 compact cars will ring up 1,100,000 sales, lead the industry to within a bumper's reach of a 7,000,000-car year, the second biggest (first: 1955) in U.S. history. "A market of this size," says Cole, "should see sales of 300,000 Corvairs, 250,000 Falcons, 150,000 Valiants, 400,000 Studebaker Larks and American Ramblers, not counting bigger Rambler Ambassadors."