We all know about small American cars. Even as the U.S. auto industry pulled itself out of its '80s slough with its nifty minivans and reborn muscle cars, Detroit's compacts continued to deserve their reputation as cheap, homely, unreliable and, well, maybe a cut above Yugos and Trabants and the like, but not by much. Even their makers now admit that American compacts have been, for the most part, junk. Listen to Ford's Jerry Auth, a marketing executive: "Small cars built by Ford, GM and Chrysler were considered inferior -- and they were." Says Chrysler's Walter Battle, a planning manager: "They were regarded as basically underpowered, and maybe not safe." No wonder Detroit accounted for only 40% of the U.S. small-car market.
Of course, the reason auto executives are coming clean about their companies' shortcomings is not that they've suddenly decided it's the right thing to do. Rather, Detroit is owning up to its lemon-strewn past by way of touting its peachy present. Capping a year that has seen each of the Big Three earn record quarterly profits, Ford, General Motors and Chrysler are trumpeting a sweeping redesign of their smaller models. Now hitting showrooms % is a new type of compact, one that approximates the flowing, sculpted looks and sheer drivability usually found only in sports and luxury cars -- in short, a kind of Everyman's Porsche. Ford's Contour and Mercury Mystique, Chrysler's Cirrus and Dodge Stratus, and GM's retooled Chevrolet Cavalier and Pontiac Sunfire will feature from 120 to 170 h.p. (vs. 90 or under for many older compacts). Formerly upscale-only features like dual air bags, antilock brakes and automatic mirror controls will be standard, while options include leather interiors, dashboard CD players and special antitheft devices. Prices in this group start at about $12,000 to $16,000, and can reach around $21,000 depending upon one's appetite for automotive swank.
"They're really good, really modern cars," says David Davis Jr., editor of Automobile magazine and usually no fan of the Big Three. "We're finally reaching the point with this model-year where you have a legitimate reason not to buy Japanese." Or, as a once skeptical test driver notes, citing a kind of bottom-line test: "The doors go clunk instead of clink."
With reviews like that, Detroit is so enthused about its prospects that it is positioning the new class of compacts as the centerpiece of an old- fashioned, '50s- and '60s-style all-out autumn advertising blitz. Between now and Super Bowl Sunday, the automakers will spend an unprecedented $1 billion on ads, commercials, giveaways and other promotional stunts introducing all makes and models; more than $400 million will be devoted to touting the appealing new compacts. Says Steve Lyons, general-marketing manager of the Ford Division, which will spend $100 million selling the Contour alone: "This is the biggest launch campaign in our history. These are important cars for us, new cars with new names. We've got a lot of explaining to do."