The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-03-29
AUTO MAKERS
STAKE BILLION
ON TRADE GAIN
First Showing of New Ford
V-8 viii Be Starting
Gun of Campaign.
ON DISPLAY THURSDAY
General Upturn in Business
Is Manufacturers Hope
in Gigantic Drive.
BY LESLIE HARROP
United Press stan Correspondent


March 81 either will mark the def
mite start Of the upturn in the long
period of depression or dash hopes
Tor a revival this year, in the opin-
ION of automotive leaders here
today.
It is on that day that the Ford
Motor Company joins other auto
motive builders in offering to the
Dublic its bid for renewed business.
Reception given the Ford product
will weigh nightly in the final et-
feet on the auto industry in gen.
eral with billion invested in its
great business drive, and the re-
sultant effect on steel and allied
industries, in the opinion OF best
informed manufacturers here.
The new Ford va, the first Ford
TO break from the four-cyllnder
class, will go on exhibition Thurs
dav at dealers salesrooms in 200
cities in the United States and
Canada, Edsel B. Ford announced
today.
Details Made Public
Simultaneous with the announce
ment. the company made public the
following details of the new car:
The new Ford capable of Is miles
an hour. will develop 65-horse
mower with the Va. The new Ford
four will develop 50-horse power
and do IS miles an hour.
Outstanding features will INCLUDE:
Silent synchronized gear shift ana
silent gear, engine rubber mounted
down draft carburetor and carpueC-
or silencer. automatic spark control
and a diaphragm type pump which
draws fuel from a rear tank.
Fourteen Body Types
These are self adjusting Haudaille
double-acting hydraulic shock abb
sorbers. four-wheel brakes, electrl-
cally welded steel-spoke wheels, WIN
large hubs and hub caps and large
tires.
EITHER may be had in fourteen
different body types" Ford's an
nouncement said. Except for the
engines. there is little difference
between the two cars. Bodies ana
chassis are practically the same.
"There will be, however, a dl1Iero
ence in price. For while the Va
will sell at low-priced field figures,
the four will sell for still less"
Other Concerns in Field
All other companies are in the
eold with advance designed cars,
representing the release OF improve
ments that in many cases We're TO
have been distributed over the next
five wears. A Slight upturn followed
the auto shows at the first OF the
wear but an abrupt slump hit the
industry Immediately following
Fords first announcement OF the
new car, early in February.
Especially in the low-priced helo
has there been a stoppage OF BUY
ing, as the public waited to see the
new Ford before purchasing.
Leaders are hopeful that this
halted buying means only desire
to view all possible cars before pur-
chase and that once the Ford &C
lively is on sale, the buying public
will make it decision.
II their hopes prove true, the
wheels of the motor industry will
hum, production will be stepped up,
and countless thousands of raw ma
terials works in every part of the
country will receive proportionate
orders that will mark the break of
the buy little" cycle.
Buys All Over Country
The Ford Motor Company, for ex-
ample, buys portions of its product
from firms all over the country
list of the Michigan firms alone
fills typewriter pages, double col
umn and half an inch thick.
Given a normal reception, the Ford
company expects to increase its pay
roll here from 10000 men now at
work to nearly 100000 and possibly
even higher-the peak number is
10000.
General Motors is making a re-
newed drive for the favor of the
public in a super-SaleS organiza-
ton announced Sunday and COM
bining the selling efforts as well as
the manufacturing work of Buick,
Odds and Pontiac in the medium
priced field.
Chrysler motors brings forth the
new Plymouth-its bid for low
priced busineSs-on April 3 with
radical improvements.
Rockne division of Studebaker
and Graham Paige both announce
definite and satisfactory progress
being made in sales on new units.
Conservative estimates place in
vestment of motors companies in
this years dramatic and gigantic
bid for business at we'll over one
billion dollars.
Billion Is Invested
On Sunday Richard H. Grant,
General Motors vice-president and
noted as the highest paid sales ex-
ecutive in the world, stated that
autos are being junked faster than
new ones are being built; that the
country rapidly is approaching the
auto exhaustion point. where peo-
pie either must buy or deprive
themselves of carS-and expressed
his opinion that never would the
American public do without autos
as a modern necessity.
Henry Ford has announced he is
prepared to stake his entire fortune
--variously estimated. at times as
high as five billion dollars-to re-
vive public confidence and renew
purchase OF autos.