Newspaper Page Text
Griffin Daily News
Car imports bracing
for tough competition
By JEFF CUSHING
Copley News Service
Before President Nixon im
posed the price freeze and sur
charge in August, the imports
were accounting for more than
21 per cent of all auto sales in
the United States. But by late
fall, the import share had
dropped to slightly over 11 per
cent in volume.
Although it is still too soon to
tell for certain, most import
manufacturers are bracing for
some tough competition in the
months ahead. For the first
time, the importers are going
to have to offer something
other than low prices.
“I’ve been in the auto busi
ness most of my life,” says one
Datsun salesman who prefers
to remain anonymous, “and
I've never seen anything like
this. I got into the import field
because I knew it could go no
where but up, but now I just
don’t know.
“We’ve offered a quality
product all along, but most
people have been buying Dat
suns and Toyotas and VWs be
cause they were priced lower
than domestic cars. Now the
shoe is on the other foot.”
Besides the immediate ef
fects of the price freeze and im
port surcharge, the dock
strikes have hurt sales as well.
“I get customers in here who
have done some real soul
searching about whether to buy
an import or a domestic car,”
points out the Datsun sales
man. “Then I have to tell them
that all I have on the lot are a
couple of demos and that it will
be three weeks or a month until
I can fill their order for one.
They turn around and head for
the Ford dealer down the street
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who has 300 Pintos stacked up
on the back lot.”
Diversification is one way the
imports are fighting back.
Gone are the days when VW
could make it by selling just the
Beetle.
And Datsun dealers would be
hard pressed if all they could
offer the public was a four-door
sedan.
Today there are coupes, se
dans, wagons, sports cars and
even light-duty trucks — all
aimed at the U.S. consumer.
And the foreign auto makers,
once considered reserved in
their product outlook, are now
sounding more like their com
petitors at GM or Ford as they
tout new models that seemingly
appear out of nowhere.
Even Volkswagen, the gray
suited conservative of the in
dustry, stocks everything from
the übiquitous Beetle on up to
the luxurious (for VW at any
rate) 411 sedan. And Fiat, once
offering only a homely sedan,
now tempts the palate with a
rash of coupes and roadsters
besides its bread-and-butter
sedan lineup.
But the giant in model mix is
Toyota, the No. 2 selling im
port. With 19 models on the line,
some Toyota salesmen have a
hard time keeping track of
them all. It can be just as con
fusing for the customer.
Toyota product variety be
gins with the Corolla 1200 two
door sedan, priced at $2,060,
port of entry, runs through the
standard Corona and Mark II
lines on up to a revamped
Crown series that starts at just
under $3,900 POE. Toyota’s
entry in the mini-supercar field
is the spritely Celica coupe,
with a sticker price of just un
der $2,950.
“You need a company bro
chure to figure out what’s
what,” complained legal secre
tary Kathy Gilson as she
wandered through a Toyota
dealership looking for a re
placement for her tired 1965
VW. “When I bought my Bug
all I had to worry about was
which color and if I wanted a
radio. Things have really
changed.”
They have indeed. The recent
economic shake-up may be
only a hint of what is to come
for the imports. And they are
beginning to realize that they
are going to have to start push
ing their product and offering
innovations and styling
changes as the U.S. auto
makers have been doing for
years if they are to remain
competitive.
As one import dealer put it:
“From now on it is going to
take more than good gas
mileage to sell a car.”
* * *
FUEL STOP: If your car is
equipped with studded snow
tires, you’d better check local
laws if you plan to do any inter
state traveling. A growing
number of states have banned
studs because studies show
they chew up the roadway.
* * *
Q. I recently purchased a
motorcycle that had been in
storage for ten months. I asked
the seller if the bike had been
prepared for storage and he
said no. I haven’t cranked it
over because I’m afraid I
might ruin the engine. Can you
give me some tips on what to do
before I try to start it up? I read
your column every week. It’s
the greatest. — R. M., Cali
fornia
A. You’ve got guts buying a
cycle you’ve never lit up. Un
less the bike has been left out in
the weather, it is probably in
pretty good shape internally. I
would suggest draining out the
crankcase, oil injection system
(if it’s a two-stroker) and the
gas tank and refilling with top
quality fluids. If there is a fuel
filter, pull it apart and clean
the screen or replace it. Pull
the spark plug and squirt an
ounce or so of light machine oil
into the cylinder. (Spray oils
are ideal for this.) Replace the
spark plug and charge up the
battery if there is one. Then
crank the engine over slowly a
couple of times to coat the
cylinder walls with oil and to
see if there is any binding. Then
let the bike sit for a minute or
so. If all seems right, light her
up.
* * *
Do you have a question about
your car, motorcycle or rec
reational vehicle? If so, drop a
line to: MOTORWAYS, Copley
News Service, P.O. Box 190,
San Diego, Calif. 92112.
God is goods
for a cult
By TOM TIEDE
POMIO, Papua-New Guin
ea—(NEA)—lt has to be a
weird scene even in the
Stone Age setting of New
Guinea. Silently, uniformly,
deliberately, several hundred
black people wind their way
through the jungle to the
beach. There to sit, there to
sing, there to talk about to
morrow — and there to stay,
sometimes for days, waiting
for God to come like Santa
Claus with gifts for all.
Those who’ve seen it here
say the ceremony is patheti
cally ignorant. But those who
participate in the rite—called
“waiting for the cargo”—say
it is the one great hope of
New Guineans to lift them
selves from poverty and
despair.
Whatever it is, the beach
scene has been repeated
throughout this South Paci
fic territory for a half-cen
tury. The participants are
known as “Cargo Cultists,”
and they solidly believe they
are on the way to reward.
Their philosophy is that
since all of the world’s riches
are transported by ships and
planes, the formula for such
fortune is to simply pray and
wait for the ships to come
in.
The cult goes back to the
mid-19th century, when Rus
sian explorers and Christian
missionaries arrived in New
Guinea with the wonders of
the white world. The idea
grew slowly at first, then
spread rapidly over wide
areas during World War 11,
when first the Japanese, then
the Americans landed with
goodies galore. Natives took
note that the possessions al
ways came under the term
“cargo.” They could not con
ceive of the origin of the
goods, had no concept of fac
tories or plants. They saw
only that the wealth, the
cargo, was dropped from the
skies, or pushed on to the
dock from ships, which came
to be thought of as the ships
of God.
Thus it is that Cargo Cult
leaders have to this day tried
almost everything to persu-
f lonely
■ continent i
Sy
ade the ships to call. Here
in Pomio, home of one of the
territory’s most sophisti
cated cults, leaders have
formed a society of believers
who, on faith, will raise
money or abandon homes in
the risk that it will all work
out well in the end.
The Pomio cult is believed
to be the largest such force
in the South Pacific. And
despite its decidedly odd be
liefs, it is said to be a
peculiarly effective force for
good among many natives.
Since the cult is religious or
iented (“God is the maker
of all cargo”), its followers
are scrupulously pious. Di-
vorce is not permitted with
in the cult, neither are any
other forms of moral devia
tion. Anyone who commits
adultry is fined sl, anyone
who argues in public is fined
50 cents. And since few in
the Pomio area would defy
the cult at any price, the
Pomio Correction Institute
(the local lockup) hasn’t
been occupied for several
years.
The Pomios are a member
ship organization. Men are
charged $lO to belong, wom
en $2 (which gives some idea
of the comparative impor
tance of the sexes here). All
money, by fine or member
ship, is deposited into the
central cult expense fund.
Leaders use this money, they
say, to encourage (read it
bribe) cargo ships to call.
Some years ago, a cult
leader named Lima Goloa
gave $4,500 to the archbishop
of nearby Rabaul. It was
hardly a Christian gesture of
generosity. Lima asked that
the money be given to Jesus
Christ as a favor for cargo
ships soon to come. (The
money, according to Catholic
church officials, was placed
in a trust fund for Pomio
natives; Jesus hasn’t seen it,
but bank officials confirm it
is still there.)
In general, New Guinea of
ficials look upon the Pomio
cargo cult as idiotic but
harmless. Some authorities
even grudgingly concede the
cult has indeed established
some stability among mem
bers. “It wasn’t many years
ago the tribes around Pimio
were hunting each other’s
heads,” says one observer.
“Now they’re so peaceful
and quiet that you even see
them in church on Sunday
mornings.”
Yet the same isn’t said for
many other cargo cultist
groups in Papua-New Guin
ea. In fact, just the opposite
is. Some cultists have turned
antigovernment (that is,
here, antiwhite or anti-Aus
tralian colonialists). They
have, in the name of inde
pendence, refused to obey
the territorial laws. Not long
ago on the island of Bali-
W i t u, 40 mainland police
were sent in to arrest more
than 60 people—“for encour
aging wicked lawlessness,”
and also for not paying their
taxes.”
Perhaps melodramatically,
officials even fear violence
among some of the cult be
lievers. They say the people
can’t be fooled forever—that
the endless, profitless wait
ing for ships can lead only
to frustrated anger. Recent
ly, one official illustrates, a
small island cult walked into
a port to await their prom
ised riches. When a ship did
pull into the harbor, the cul
tists were incensed to learn
the cargo was not for them.
The result was a fight be
tween cultists and dockwork
ers which ended with some
broken noses and gaping
knife wounds.
But despite government
pressures to cease, the New
Guinea cargo cults show no
signs of shrinking. In fact,
they’re expanding. Some
have gotten away from the
idea that God will bring the
goods. They believe Adolph
Hitler may be the savior.