Small is beautiful.-E.M. Schumacher

There were few automotive designers or Detroit marketers that comprehended the "small is beautiful" quote by the ecology-minded author Schumacher in the early 1970s. There were few of us to foresee CAFE legislation, $1.30-per-gallon gasoline prices and possible fuel shortages, and the combination of length of time it requires Detroit to engineer and convert to smaller models compared to the dramatic and rapid switch by Americans suddenly embracing the "small is beautiful" concept.

In January, sub-compacts, compacts and imported cars accounted for 60% of U.S. car sales. With stepped-up production on X-bodies this fall, Chrysler's new Reliant and Aires, Ford's Escort and Lynx, and the yet to be announced J-cars by GM, we can fully expect that this part of the market will reach over 80% in the next two years.

The adjacent table does not exactly compare apples with apples, but it does reflect some interesting points. The three highest selling nameplates in this segment are domestically built. Toyota and Datsun are gaining about 26% of the fleet business in this sector (just about the same share that all imports have of the total retail market). If and when VW commits to a fleet program, it could have an important effect.

Another notable point is that in the '79 model year there were about 1,500,000 fleet cars sold (domestic and import), with nearly 450,000 in the sub-compact and compact area; that is nearly 30% of the cars. It is significant that many fleet buyers and lessors still prefer the intermediates and the full-size models.

Small may be beautiful, but it still may take some time to make everyone in our market a believer.