"This Is So Cute!"

By Tom Curry/Chicago

In five weeks Heather Starsiak will graduate from Lyons Township High School in the prosperous Chicago suburb of La Grange. To celebrate the event and to speed her trips home next fall from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, her father Drew is buying Heather a new car to replace her 1989 Pontiac Sunbird. What will it be? On such questions turns the fate of the U.S. auto industry in this grimmest spring in memory.

Heather's mother Julie owns a 1989 BMW and recalls that "because it was the exact car I wanted, I paid sticker price. I don't believe you ever pay full sticker price for an American car." As she and Heather head out for an evening of comparison shopping, Julie expects the domestic dealers to be more flexible on price than Toyota.

First stop is Granger Oldsmobile in Countryside, where Drew bought his Olds 98. "That one there!" Heather cries right away, pointing to a photo of a cherry-red Cutlass Supreme convertible. Salesman Dan Leversen cautions her, "That's the hardest car to get ahold of." He has no red Cutlass convertibles, but "we have a white one coming in." Julie's eyes widen in alarm as Leversen reveals the $24,232 sticker price. "I doubt Dad would spend $24,000," Julie says.

Leversen steers them over to a less flashy Cutlass Calais that lists for $12,583. No problem with availability here: "We could get one in the next two hours," Leversen promises. As Julie begins parrying over price, she inquires whether he's flexible. "Absolutely," Leversen answers quickly. With rebates and trade-in, Dad would end up paying $4,863 for the Calais. But Heather seems a bit cool to it.

As they leave, Julie tells Leversen, "All of our neighbors spoke highly of your grandfather," who founded the business back in 1953. Many of those neighbors worked at the nearby Fisher Body plant on Willow Springs Road, which shut down in 1988. They wouldn't think of buying anything but a GM car. Heather's tastes, though, are not swayed by chauvinism or family tradition. She wants something sporty and stylish.

At the next dealer, Dan Wolf Pontiac, where Drew bought Heather's Sunbird, the salesman is pleasantly surprised to see the Starsiaks back in the market so soon. Idle salesmen gather around as if to observe a rare species.

"It's wonderful," Heather gushes as the salesman opens the convertible top on a $17,300 red Sunbird. She settles into the driver's seat and her eyes gleam with fantasies of the open road. As her mother and the salesman discuss water leaks in convertible tops, Heather says crisply, "Let's talk price." With trade-in and rebate, the Sunbird will be $8,123.

Final stop is Continental Toyota, where a slick, streamlined Celica has been waiting to capture Heather's heart. She jumps into a white $14,600 hardtop and opens the sun roof, declaring, "This is so cute!" The floor model has a stick shift; instantly Heather insists, "I could learn manual shifting." She would drive it out the door right now if she could. Julie says, "I don't think there's even a comparison" with the Calais or the Sunbird.

Before Heather takes a Celica for a test spin, her mother confides, "She would give her eyeteeth for this car." Afterward Toyota salesman Richard Misheikis tells mother and daughter that "there's not too much flexibility" in the $14,638 price. Figuring just a $6,000 trade-in allowance plus some options, the cost works out to $9,538.

Julie turns to the selling job that faces her and Heather. "Our problem is that 'buy American' thing," she says. "This isn't Mom and Dad splitting the cost. This is just Dad." She adds, "Heather's got to do a bit of work here. She's the one who has to convince him."

At week's end Drew was still mulling his choice. But it was already clear Toyota had won the loyalties of another young American driver.