Rites of Summer (Contd.)

Proceeding with Detroit's annual rites of summer, more U.S. automakers last week gave the press an advance look at their 1962 models. Among the highlights:

Chevrolet. Chevy's big surprise is the size of its new "intermediate'' car. the Chevy II. Only slightly larger than a compact, the Chevy II is intended to compete not with Ford's intermediate Fairlane. which is roughly the size of a 1949 sedan, but with Ford's best-selling Falcon compact. In a market where companies almost invariably try to blanket their competitors' offerings, this leaves a gap in Chevy's line, but Chevrolet General Manager Edward Cole defends his strategy by saying that the cheapest big Chevy, the Biscayne. will be competition enough for the Fairlane. Though a lower, horizontally barred grille and a squared-off rear deck give them a more massive look, Chevy's big cars remain unchanged in actual dimensions. Chevrolet's high-performance sports car. the Corvette, and the rear-engined Corvair compact also remain basically unchanged except for minor additions of trim.

Pontiac. Following the 1962 trend toward pizazz. Pontiac has turned out a Grand Prix hardtop coupe replete with stick shift, bucket seats and dual exhaust pipes. To differentiate it from the standard Pontiacs. which have new prow-shaped grilles, the Grand Prix grille is split by a vertical wedge. Like most 1962 cars, Pontiacs have such improved maintenance features as 35.000-mile chassis-lubrication intervals, 4.000-mile oil changes and two-year radiator coolant.

Studebaker-Packard. Under ambitious new President Sherwood H. Egbert (TIME. April 21). S.P. has brought out its handsomest cars in several years. To overcome their sawed-off look, the Lark and Lark Cruiser are as much as 13 inches longer than last year's models, and have been adorned with an upright grille similar to that of the Mercedes Benz (which S.P. markets in the U.S.). On the restyled Hawk. S.P. designers have also used the Mercedes look up front and a roof that borrows some of the thunder from Ford's Thunderbird. Though S.P. has dipped an estimated $10.3 million into the red so far this year. Egbert reports that dealers' orders for the 1962 models are running 20% ahead of last year.

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