Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-02-19
Continued From Page DID


eyed. eve are paSlng our 1854
plans on an increase of about
Is per cent in sales over 1883"
he told The Star the other day.
So it goes In almost all seq
ments of the industry. And those
noises from Detroit are not just
talk and nothing else.
About a fortnight ago Ford
Motor Co. revealed higher pro-
duction levels in January than
it had achieved in January, 1858.
Chevrolet has been turning them
out with machine-gun rapidity
in a headlong race with Ford
for No. l place in the so-called
''low-priced" field.
Still. So million is the best
educated guess, and the cheerieSt
whistler you can find in Detroit
will not predict for the industry
as a whole anything higher than
SIS million.
Edgar Kaiser, who is integral
ing his operations with WHY'S
at Toledo on the heels of last
years merger. estimates 4.6
million to 5 million sales.
Why all this bad arithmetic?
In the first place, it is early
in the year. and Detroit tradi-
tionally produces more heavily in
the first half than in the second.
There is plenty of time to revise
ScheduleS-and gueSSes-later ii
all does not go well.
The Dealers Viewpoint.
In the second place. Detroit
has no way of knowing yet
whether the dealers are right
in taking a gloomy view of the
1854 sales potential-or whether
the dealers mean what they say.
What do the dealers say?
Go back to the start of the
year, when the National Auto
mobile Dealers Association met
at Miami Beach in what should
have been a carnival of self
graduation over fat sales year.
The annual meeting turned out
to be a council of WARMTH the
chosen enemy the automobile
producers of Detroit.
The market is drying up, the
dealers warned the producers.
Five million sales this year.
against s million in 1853, will be
a better performance than most
of US hope for.
Get Out and Sell.
Nonsense. said the producers.
Just face the fact that the SELL
ers' market in cars is a thing
of the past and get out and sell
automobiles. Ring doorbells; dial
telephone numbers-like the man
says, you gotta make calls if
you wanta get results"
In Detroit last month, pro-
ducerS were outSpoken-if not
downright brutal-about the
shortcomings of the sales end of
the motor business.
There are thousands of sales
men who have never sold a car"
one motor spokesman said. If
sales managers would get those
guys out of the salesrooms and
make them peddle some cars,
demand would hold up. They've
got to forget about this walk-in
business and do a little work
for a change"
Harsh Words.
Harsh words beget harsh
words. naturally. Said one of
Washington's top sales man.
ayers:
We've been selling cars ag-
gressively since last June. If
these guys from Detroit think
we aren't pushing. they ought
to come down here and take a
look"
This sales executive thought
plans for more than million
cars in 1854 were a little too
highfalutin' to make much sense.
I'VE sold almost 5000 cars
last year. If we sell $500 this
year we'll be doing a hell of a
job. And if Detroit turns out
more than AZ million cars,
they'd better look for a place to
store the rest"
Both sides of the argument
have some merit. There certainly
could be more selling" than
there is. as Detroit suggests.
But there is a goodly amount
of selling" going on right now,
as the dealers contend.
Detroit spokesman say they
could take a random sample
with confidence of finding that
not more than per cent of the
respondents have ever been ap-
preached by new-car dealer.
Surveyed Selling Effort.
Just for fun, The Star made
q little survey, trying to cover
all income brackets except the
very rich and the very poor. It
found:
. New-car statesmen had made
some personal contact in the last
year. either phone call. home or
Office visit, or personal letter,
with 81 per cent.
. Dealers had sent direct-mail
advertising to 88 per cent.
. Of the group personally con-
tacted, not one person bought
a car.
Q OF the whole sample, II per