Evening star., 1942-03-30
Future Car Designs
To Depend on How
Long War Lasts
Vost Changes Likely
If Conflict Posses
Two-Yeor Mark
BY DAVID J. WILKIE,


DETROIT, March 30.-The design
and styling of the postwar auto
mobile will be determined largely
by how long the conflict lasts;
there will be vast expansion in the
use Of aircraft both as passenger
and cargo carriers but II will not
curtail individual demand for pas
senger automobiles.
That's the view of a number of
the men who formerly made the
Nations automobiles and now are
testing the productive capacity of
their hundreds of factories through
out the country In the manufacture
of war materials.
One of these experts whose plant
facilities were switched several
months ago from automobile body
to bomber plane sub-assemblies,
disagrees with the view that the in
dustry can get back into passenger
vehicle output on short notice after
the end of the war.
misunderstanding Seen.
IF you believe that" he said,
you haven't really appreciated the
extent of the conversion of the in
dustry's facilities to the war pro-
duction job. There is wholly mis-
taken impression that the industry
has merely put aside its car manu-
featuring neutrality-suspicious. with
some raw stuff-and its blueprints
so that it might quickly resume the
assembling of l94l model cars once
the war is over.
This is wrong not only as TO the
status of equipment and raw ma
terial but also as to the conviction
that the first postwar cars will be
delayed 1941 models"
The industry did have some un-
used materials on hand when pas
senger car production ceased nearly
two months ago. All of it now is
under control of the War Produc-
ton Board just as are thousands Of
new automobile tires in the hands Of
retailers throughout the Nation.
If the war ends within the next
two years, the industry experts say,
the first new cars undoubtedly will
be 1941 types; If it goes beyond that
time cars of entirely new design will
be brought out Incorporating much
of what the industry has learned in
metallurgical processes, construc-
ton and manufacturing practice in
war material manufacture.
Whichever way you look at it,"
said one industry head, its going
to take six months to get back into
car production after the war"
Contracts With Labor View.
While this contrasts with the view
of some labor union executives that
a wild scramble" to be first back
in production will speed up the re-
sumption of postwar passenger
vehicle output, the plant and equip
ment reconversion job is going tc
be a bigger one than that the in
dustry has just experienced.
Proponents of most of the radi-
cally different type Of passenger au-
tomobiles of which experimental
models have been built during the
last few years look to the postwar
period as perhaps Offering opportu-
nifty for public-appeal test of their
vehicles.
These models have included We
hicles with rear-engine power plants
some powered with diesel motors,
some in which everything has been
some powered with Diesel motors
semble small buses with the operator
seated directly over the front axle
and others in which interior space
has been increased in various ways
Much higher grade material at
lower prices than it ever before was
available is the general expectation
of the industry experts for the post
war automobile-if the war lasts
more than two years.