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The company did manage to turn out major executive changes last week, however. Shuffling the team near the top, Ford named as executive vice president (for finance) a longtime staffer who was one of the original postwar whiz kids: J. Edward Lundy, 52. To replace Charles H. Patterson, who retires next month at 65, Ford chose Mustang Man Lee lacocca (TIME cover, April 17, 1964), now head of Ford's car and truck group. As executive vice president, lacocca, who turns 43 this week, will run all Ford auto operations in North America.
G.M.'s Goodies. Though comparisons are somewhat clouded by the fact that all manufacturers put their new cars on sale earlier this year than last, Ford's sales figures show definite strike symptoms. In the first ten days of this month, the Lincoln-Mercury Division sold only 5,650 cars, as against 14,058 last year. Though they, too, face possible strikes, the other automakers are cheering the best "debut time" in new car history. In all, the industry sold 327,531 new cars in the last ten days of September—second best ten-day period ever.
With Ford practically in the pits, General Motors expanded its share of the market from its usual 50%-55% to 63%. Following the industry pattern, in which early buyers tend to be up-with-the-Joneses types, full-sized cars did the best. Big Impalas, Biscaynes and Caprices topped Chevrolet's sales. Pontiac is selling twice as many big models as smaller Tempests and Firebirds. Full-sized Oldsmobiles sold twice as fast as intermediate F-85s. One of the best salesmen was G.M.'s first Ne gro dealer, Albert W. Johnson, 46, of Chicago.* A former St. Louis hospital administrator with a yen for selling, he wrote G.M. Boss James Roche about a franchise last year, got it on Oct. 1 and wrote orders for 40 Oldsmobiles in his first week.
Chrysler, which took a two-week jump on its rivals in '68 sales, maintained its furious pace with its full-sized Plymouth Furies and Dodge Po-laras. Watched intently at Chrysler were the increased sales of Plymouth's intermediate Belvedere, which was restyled with a racy hop-up in the rear fenders and a faster roof line. American Motors Corp. also had increased sales—mostly because its new Javelin specialty cars were hitting the mark. One Dallas dealer crowed that for the first time in memory, "the kids came en masse."
*One of Johnson's Chicago rivals is Ford's first Negro-owned dealership, opened in July by Cubs First Baseman Ernie Banks and Partner Bob Nelson. The industry's only other Negro dealer, Detroit's Ed Davis, got his Chrysler-Plymouth franchise five years ago.