![]() That led to the nameplate’s sales falling substantially, although for a time it was compensated for by the sporty Mustang.Īlso see ‘Lee Iacocca got lucky with the 1964-66 Ford Mustang’Įventually Ford would respond to rising import sales, first with the strippo compact Maverick in mid-1969 and then with the subcompact Pinto for 1971. A key reason why this happened is arguably because all of the American automakers shifted their attention to bigger, glitzier and more powerful models.įor example, Iacocca not only killed the Cardinal, but he moved the compact Falcon to a mid-sized platform in 1966. The market share of foreign cars and trucks would shoot up from under 5 percent in 1963 to almost 14 percent in 1970. The problem was that the imports would be held in check only temporarily. Meanwhile, American compacts had succeeded in cutting import market share. This shift was symbolized by Rambler, that paragon of compact probity, who was bumped out of third place in sales by Pontiac in 1962. By 1962 smaller economy cars were beginning to be eclipsed in sales by larger and sportier models. 72).Īlso see ‘If you ran VW in 1959 how would you prepare for Detroit’s compacts?’įord’s excuses made some sense. “Detroit Listening Post” writer Jim Whipple insisted that the cancellation was not because Ford management feared a “buyer reaction to front wheel drive” (Whipple, 1962 p. A decline in the demand for smaller economy cars resulted in Ford no longer being able to “justify the cost of setting up assembly lines and channels of distribution for cars and parts.” Another factor was supposedly that the appearance of Detroit’s compacts in the used-car market could further erode the viability of a subcompact. Popular Mechanics summarized the reasons Ford gave for not building the Cardinal in the United States. 1: Should Ford have built a US subcompact in the 1960s? VW sales peaked in 1970 at almost 583,000 units. The Volkswagen Beetle saw its sales continue to rise in the early-1960s despite the arrival of a veritable Spanish armada of compact cars from American automakers. ![]()
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