Tra-la, Tra-la

Spring, which normally perks up the U.S. auto industry's sales, this year brought such a skyrocketing whoosh that automen rubbed their eyes in amazement. The customers were more surprised. Only a few months ago they could have bought all but a few makes from almost any dealer's floor. By last week the rush for new cars was so heavy that buyers will have to wait as long as three months for the most popular makes.

What made this runaway demand even more remarkable was the fact that 1950 production was 15% ahead of 1949's, even with Chrysler strikebound. This week the industry will turn out 1950's 2,000,000th vehicle, v. 1,667,000 at this time last year. General Motors, which turned out 870,167 cars and trucks in 1950-5. first quarter, v. 570,692 a year ago, was still so far behind demand last week that it put many of its plants on double-overtime Saturday shifts. Ford, which boosted production 45% in the first quarter to 459,481 units, was talking of six-months' production which would nearly equal 1924's alltime record of 982,415 model Ts. Studebaker had upped its first-quarter auto production 52%, to 74,-725 units.

But demand was keeping pace. A prime example was Buick. In March it had produced 48,616 cars, more than in any month in its history. Yet it sold 54,993, and the gap between production and demand virtually exhausted every dealer's stock. The spring fever had even spread to the used-car market. Automotive News reported that the new demand had caused the average price of all used cars to rise to $982, a gain of $44 in two months. In all, the automakers were roaring along so merrily that Ford Sales Boss Jack Davis predicted that record production could well last through the middle of 1951.

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