Word: bmw
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That is exactly the kind of challenge that Lutz met and mastered when in 1974 German Ford lured him away from Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW), where he had been sales vice president. It scarcely seemed a good time to make the move, since German Ford in 1974 lost $69 million-while its chief rival, General Motors' Adam Opel subsidiary, squeezed out a $2.4 million profit-and saw its share of the nation's auto market fall to 10%, from...
...stay in the black with a profit of $2.4 million on sales of $1.8 billion. "The big producers were all stuck with high breakeven points [largely because of high labor costs and excess plant capacity] when the recession struck," says Lutz, who moved to Ford from Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) in 1974. "Now the arithmetic is coming right...
...with gasoline at $ 1.33 a gallon, double its 1973 price, there is a strong demand for small, economical cars, while wealthy drivers will continue to buy expensive quality autos. But the market is less buoyant for medium-sized, medium-priced autos. That, in part, explains how Daimler-Benz and BMW managed to steer through the recession with barely a falter. Sales of Mercedes-Benz cars rose from 331,682 in 1973 to 350,098 in 1975. Buoyed by that performance as well as by rising truck and bus production (229,-303, up 11.7% from 1974), Daimler-Benz is now Europe...
...BMW remains Pinto-sized by comparison, with sales of $1.2 billion in 1975, but output of its fast, sporty cars soared to 217,458, from 184,681 the year before. Like Daimler-Benz, BMW did not have to lay off a single worker during the recession and remained profitable, making $16.2 million in 1974. Even little Porsche, which sells a mere 180 cars a week (price range: $9,120 to $26,600), is confident enough to have embarked on a $55 million expansion program...
...going home. Not that any sudden rush of sentimental elation sweeps over the resident of western New York at the tollbooth, but it's just different, immediately, for Massachusetts has a tidy feeling all its own that can make the Berkshires seem like Cambridge disguised in trees. The BMW's and Connecticut plates of college kids, the Judy-Collins-hip radio station in Pittsfield that you can get from the Pike in Massachusetts, ever since Dukakis supposedly cracked down on speeding violations, even the cops seem to drive estate wagons. Things are hidden from the Mass Pike, nicely shrubberied away...