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No one, not even Lee Iacocca, ever used a simile like that to describe a Dodge Aries. The Cirrus and its eminently drivable competitors may go a long way toward winning back that lost generation of drivers. Detroit has certainly set ambitious goals for them. Although the new compacts like Contour and Cirrus are in the same size bracket as the Honda Civic and the Toyota Corolla, for example, they are squarely aimed at taking away customers from the larger (and more expensive) mid-size Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys. The strategy is to squeeze the popular mid-size Hondas and Toyotas between Detroit's hot compacts and its larger models, like Ford's Taurus, the top-selling car in the U.S. Says Chris Cedergren, who tracks auto-industry sales for AutoPacific: "The battle lines are really going to be drawn in the premium-compact market, where the Japanese get about 33% of their U.S. car sales. We think the Contour and the Mystique and the Chrysler models are going to put a lot of pressure on the Japanese."
Economists point out that the cheaper dollar will help, since more than half the key components in U.S.-assembled Japanese cars are still made in Japan. As Cedergren points out, "At 98 yen to the dollar, there is not a whole lot the Japanese can do about it." Other industry experts wonder, though, if the pricing advantage will really boost Detroit's cause all that much. As long as so many consumers trust Japanese cars, they may be willing to pay a little more for them. Says David Andrea, who follows auto pricing for AutoPacific in Detroit: Buying Japanese "is almost like buying an insurance policy."
Ultimately, it is the guts and good looks of Detroit's new compacts that will have to do the hard work of rebuilding consumer loyalty. Ford, for one, is betting $6 billion in development costs that once people try the Contour and its cousins, they will never look at an Accord or Camry the same way again.