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• 1 . 1 1 ' ' • ' • • . " " ' 1 . i ' . • . ' ' • Homemade imports may hurt economy By William Allan Scripps Howard Newsservice Toyota's decision to assemble 200,000 cars annually in the United States reflects several basic trends running through the industry with the momentum of a loaded tractor-trailer. The end result will be a compromise, but a significant loss of jobs and a severe impact on the U.S. economy, in­ dustry analysts say. Toyota, Japan's larg­ est automaker and the No. 1 exporter of cars to America, joins four oth­ er Japanese firms as­ sembling, or planning to assemble, motor ve­ hicles in America. Nissan is building cars and trucks in Ten­ nessee. Honda is assem­ bling cars in Ohio. Maz­ da has broken ground for a plant in Michigan. And Mitsubishi plans a joint project with Chrysler, the site of which has not been an­ nounced. Toyota itself has a joint project with General Motors produc­ ing cars in Freemont, Calif. Vehicles so produced are in addition to those in from Japan, projections are that when all these hybrid plants get rolling they'll replace six U.S. plants with 90,000 jobs -- that the foreign share of the U.S. market, which now hovers around 26 per­ cent, will escalate to 44 percent, or almost half the new cars in America. The word "assemble" is a key one. While the vehicles are being put together in * the United States, many of the components -- es­ pecially the expensive, labor-intensive engines and transmissions -- are imported from Ja­ pan. Basically, foreign automakers are settling for exporting half a car, rather than none at all. This is because Japa­ nese imports still come into the country under "voluntary" quotas. The Reagan Adminis­ tration did not ask that Synthetic oils offer advantages for smaller, hotter running engines For most cars for most driving condi­ tions, you should use engine oil rated 5W-30 •.for viscosity, to flow ; *easily in cold weather ;.*but retain body in the • ;heat. So say newest recommendations by U.S. carmakers. 1 There are may good I-5W-30 oils. But, with Ithe trend to smaller '; engines running hotter ' to turn out more power, there could be increasing attention to synthetics. For exam­ ple, turbocharger im­ pellers can run 120,000 r p m , a n d temperatures exceed 500 degrees F. C o v e n t i o n a l lubricants are refined from crude oil into several thousand kinds of hydrocarbons work­ ing together more or less. In contrast, a good synthetic like Mobil 1 is made from a f e w c h e m i c a l "building blocks" selected for special capabilities, like stability over a wide temperature range, and ability to lubricate with less contamina­ tion, wear and friction, increasing power. Synthetic Mobil 1 is now available in two viscosities. There's a 15W-50--for motorists wanting a thicker oil for high-performance cars. A1 Unser Jr. used it in winning New York's 1985 Indy Car Grand Prix. Then there's a 5W-30. Cars using it won more than half the first places through most of 1985 in endurance races for showroom stock-cars. That's the kind you see on the road. In Sports Car Club of America's U.S. Endurance Cup series, the cars go pretty much all out for 6,12 or 24 hours. quotas be extended for 1985. The Japanese gov­ ernment, fearing counter measures if they were relaxed en­ tirely, retained the quo­ tas for 1985, increasing them roughly 24 per­ cent, or, 450,000 cars an­ nually, to 2.3 million units. What's more, the Jap­ anese alotted increases from company to com­ pany in a way that the large, veteran import­ ers such as Toyota and Nissan received lower percentage increases than latecomers such as Mazda, Isuzu and Mitsubishi. Specifically, says J.D. Power & Asso­ ciates, the West Coast market research firm, quotas for Toyota and Nissan were increased about 12 percent, while Mazda's total went up 34.9 percent. George C. Peterson, director of automotive programs at Power, chuckled at the half-a- car theory. "The Japanese under­ stand the political is­ sues around them. They are pretty smart folks," he said. "They feel there's some sort of chological trigger point to importing a tre­ mendous number of made-in-Japan cars -- something around 30 percent of market -- that would trigger quite a bit of protectionism. So they plan to assem­ ble some products here and head off that prob­ lem at the pass." A more recent factor is the Beagan Adminis­ tration's plan to relax fuel economy standards for the 1986 model year. Since 1978, the federal government steadily has been increasing fuel economy standards in direct opposition to con­ sumer demand for "big" cars. All new cars are smaller and more fuel efficient than the gas guzzlers of a decade ago, but even so the government's Cor­ porate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regu­ lation has been forcing out still smaller cars. All cars, as a group, produced by any one. automaker for the 1985 model year must aver­ age 27.5 miles per gal­ lon. The more mini cars a firm can sell, the more full-sized cars it can build, keep within the average and escape fines. Prior to CAFE, Americans were not much interested in small cars and little au- tos from Japan were not much of a market factor. With everyone building small cars, Japanese imports streamed onto U.S. highways. But with rel­ atively cheap gasoline readily available, Americans are back opting for larger cars, currently termed "mid­ sized." Both General Motors and Ford have been selling so many larger cars, in fact, they've run into CAFE troubles. Both have been skid­ ding by on credits built up over the years when the regulation was not so strict and consumers were more interested in mpgs. This summer the na­ tion's top two automak­ ers petitioned the gov­ ernment for relief. So far-reaching is the planned rollback, con­ sumer activist Ralph Nader and Chrysler Chairman Lee Iicocca have joined to fight it. "We (Chrysler) were pretty damn stupid to spend over a billion dol­ lars to meet the law," Iacocca said. The change also will affect Japanese im­ ports, which also must meet CAFE standards. Under the quotas, the Japanese have been shipping larger, more expensive cars because there Is more profit in them for automaker and dealer alike. The voluntary quotas are based on the number of cars, not their size or price tags. Example: '78280ZCPE HH MAKE OFFER '79 2S0ZX 2x2 UK MAKE OFFER 'SO 2S0ZX CPE. 3M 6298 '80280ZXCPE MK MAKE OFFER '112MZX TURBO JO 9995 'S4300ZXCPC. I*HK MAKE OFFER *80 CIVIC 1800 3*8* 2798 '80 ACCORD jm MAKE OFFER '79 ACCORD MAKE OFFER '82CCUCACT 3M 8798 '82 COROLLA UN 8298 '77 CEUCAGT MAKE OFFER '78 NOVA jm 898 MOST CARS SOLD WITH3M0NTH/MMILE WARRANTY I MANYOTHER DOMESTIC! IMPORTS TOCHOOSE FROM f rtimliff 136W.NW.HWY. BARRINGTON 381-7991 Your Ford Dealer's got it! Low clearance prices. Big savings. TO FORD ESCORT The new Ford Escort accelerates quicker, starts better, and runs quieter than before. 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