Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, September 16, 1993                   TAG: 9309160104
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

CAR PAYMENTS GET LONGER, NOT HIGHER

Twenty years ago, the price of a car amounted to about 17 weeks of family income. But in 1993, it takes 26 weeks of pay to buy a new vehicle, said Thomas Webb, chief economist for the National Automobile Dealers Association.

Dealers have found that buyers are willing to pay more for cars as long as they can afford the monthly payments, he said. So the average loan is paid off over 55 months now compared to 35 months two decades ago, but each installment has remained about the same percent of income, Webb said at the group's Washington conference.

Average selling prices have increased from less than $4,000 in 1973 to about $18,000 in 1993, but a lot of that was inflation. In inflation-adjusted dollars, the increase was from $3,400 to $4,900, he said.

The record $320 billion in sales in 1992 was attributed to purchases of new and used cars, while service and parts sales remained stagnant, the annual report said.

About 12.9 million new vehicles were sold by dealerships in 1992, with 36 percent of the sales in vans, sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks. New-car dealers also sold about 15.2 million used vehicles in 1992.

Dealership employment dropped from 960,100 people in 1988 to 876,000 in 1992. Annual payroll last year was $23.7 billion, while the average dealership had an annual payroll of $1.02 million and 38 employees. - Associated Press