The Winner?

The winner of the 1954 race for the No. 1 spot in the auto industry was Chevrolet. So said R. L. Polk & Co., the industry statistician, last week. In 1954 automobile registrations, Chevrolet led Ford 1,417,453 cars to 1,400,440.

Ford promptly protested. It charged that Chevrolet had in effect stuffed the ballot box. Its dealers registered 56,802 cars in their own names, nearly 42,000 more than Ford dealers, according to the Polk computations. Only after subtracting the dealer registrations, said Ford Vice President R. S. McNamara, could one arrive at "actual sales to customers." These showed Ford clearly the legitimate winner by 25,257 car registrations, or 2%. Snapped a Chevrolet official: "Smoke screen. We're still the leaders, and we defy anyone to tell us differently."

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