Motor Cars

Auto-conscious citizens have been kept in a titter of excitement since the introduction of Ford, model A, through the successive automobile shows, the successive price cuttings. If citizens had over- emphasized the importance of the vehicle industry in 1927, they were brusquely brought to their senses last week. They learned from Washington that the past year had been relatively ineffectual, auto- wise. The number of passenger cars sold was 2,938,868; less than 1926, less than 1925, less than 1924, less than 1923.

On the same day General Motors Corp. ("A family of products and people") announced its sales figures, which had gone opposite to the trend of the industry. The "family" had sold in 1927, 1,554,577 cars; in 1926, 1,215,826. Its 1926 profits had been $186,231,182; its 1927 profits are expected to have been $230,000,000.