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Far greater worries plague the used-car dealers. They fear that the compacts, priced in the same range as late-model used cars, will wreck their market. If that happens, the market for new cars would be hard hit; if a motorist cannot get a fair price for his old car, he will not be eager to trade it in on a new car. On the other hand, some optimistic secondhand dealers argue that the buyer in the $2,000 class will prefer a roomy, late-model car to a compact. "The man who has been in the habit of buying a luxury car will not buy a compact," says Kansas City Salesman Henry Frick. "He'll still come to us —especially if he has a big family."
"Welcome Back." What will the new compacts do to those gnatty foreign bugs, which started the rush to smallness? "We never worry about competition," says Britain's Lord Rootes, whose Rootes Motors Ltd. makes Hillman, Singer, Sunbeam. "We welcome our American competitors back after the years in which they designed themselves out of the market."
Foreign makers view Detroit's shift as a return to normal size rather than a direct challenge to their cars. They figure that the new U.S. compacts—which run about 15 ft. long and start at about $1,800 list-will bite into the sales of regular U.S. cars, but are neither small enough nor economical enough to cut the sales of the fastest-selling smaller imports, which run about 10 ft. to 13 ft. and deliver in the $1,600 range. Foreign makers expect to benefit from Detroit's new emphasis on smallness; they hope to increase this year's exports of 600,000 cars to the U.S. to about 700,000 next year.
American Motors' President George Romney, whose hot-selling Ramblers sped the entry of the Big Three into the compact race and now hold a commanding lead, argues that the big companies will be in trouble from the moment they jump into the smaller-car field. But not Rambler. "We will make and sell more than 500,000 Rambler '60s." Studebaker-Packard also expects a lift for Lark, up about a third to 200,000 sales. "Of one thing I'm certain," says Romney, "the one who is not going to be hurt is the customer."
The U.S. customer will indeed get a long overdue break. The Corvair, the Falcon and Valiant are more than a shift to small cars; they also signal a shift in Detroit's auto-building philosophies, notably an end to years of emphasizing styling rather than mechanical changes. From now on, the big emphasis will be on mechanical improvements and innovations. The 80-h.p. Corvair has them aplenty. It gets 25 to 30 miles per gallon, can speed up to 88 m.p.h., and climb an ice-covered grade of 30° that would stop a standard car. Its flat "pancake" aluminum engine, which has six horizontally opposed cylinders (two banks of cylinders in a horizontal position), weighs only 332 Ibs. v. 600
Ibs. for Chevy's regular 170-h.p. to 230-h.p. cast-iron V8. Being air-cooled, it eliminates the water pump and radiator, does away with overheating and freezing, needs no antifreeze. Because the engine is aft, and combines there with the transmission and drive gears, there is no transmission hump in the floor. Because the front is light, Chevy says the car is easy to steer without power steering, gets better traction and braking.