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"Era of Specific Needs." What the auto industry is rolling into now, says Ed Cole, is "the era of specific driving needs." More and more Americans want a big car for big driving jobs, a small runabout for short hops. Thus, having long since realized the dream of a car for almost every family, the U.S. now is sweeping toward two cars in every garage. The compacts are speeding up the trend, since two Corvairs can be bought for the price of the biggest dressed-up Chevy.
Four years ago 4,800,000 U.S. families owned two cars or more. Today 7,000,000 do—and there are 350,000 three-car families. By 1965, more than 10 million families will have at least two cars. With the population growing fast, and the demand for special-purpose, personal transportation growing even faster, Ed Cole believes that auto sales in the U.S. will ride up steadily to 8,000,000 in the mid-1960s. More than that, in at least one year before 1970, the U.S. will sell an awesome 10 million cars.
*Hearing that, Detroit wags recalled the time when Big Bill Knudsen, G.M.'s late president, boasted to Adman Bruce Barton that a certain new-model Chevy was "almost the perfect low-priced car—and it will really become perfect next year when we make one small change." Barton bit hard. "What change?" Deadpanned Bill Knudsen: "We're just going to hang a small hammock under the chassis. Catch all the goddam parts that fall out."