U.S. CAR MAKERS HOPE TO PROFIT FROM WEAK DOLLAR
The Geneva Motor Show, the first major
car show of the year, opens tomorrow with U.S. Car makers
hoping to make new inroads into European markets due to the
cheap dollar, automobile executives said.
    Ford Motor Co <F> and General Motors Corp <GM> sell cars in
Europe, where about 10.5 mln new cars a year are bought. GM
also makes a few thousand in North American plants for European
export.
     Now Chrysler Corp <C> is saying it will begin exporting
American-made vehicles before the end of this year to Europe, a
market it left in 1978 when it was near bankruptcy.
    Ford's European operations in Britain and West Germany
manufactured and sold about 1.5 million cars in Europe last
year -- the largest U.S. Manufacturer's share of the European
market.
    Opel/Vauxhall, with factories in West Germany, Spain and
Britain, accounted for most of GM's sales in Europe with about
1.3 million vehicles in 1986, officials said.
    James Fry of GM overseas distribution system said GM hoped
for a five-fold rise this year in sales of North American-made
vehicles in Europe, selling between 7,000 and 8,000 (North
American-made) units in Europe for the year to August 1987. "A
low dollar makes our prices very attractive," he told Reuters.
    Using an average price of 13,000 dlrs per car, his
projected sales figure would translate into between 91 million
and 104 mln dlrs in turnover, Fry added.
    That would be a jump from 1986 when GM sold 1,500
North-American made cars for revenue of 19 mln dlrs.
    Ford has 41 factories in West Europe, which manufacture all
of its cars sold on the continent.  But Walter Hayes, vice
president of Ford Europe, told Reuters he did not expect a
large rise in sales this year as a result of the weak dollar. 
"We have concluded that despite the dollar difference.... Europe
is inevitably a small volume market."
    Hayes said the cost of changing American cars to conform to
European environmental specifications cut into profit margins.
    But Robert Lutz, Chrysler executive vice-president, said
the weak dollar would now help Chrysler compete in Europe. 
"After a lapse of almost nine years, Chrysler is about to
re-enter the European market," he said.
    "We prefer to export to Europe rather than manufacture here
because it will allow us to take full competitive advantage of
the favorable exchange rates due to the declining value of the
dollar."
 Reuter
