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

DATE: SATURDAY, August 7, 1993                   TAG: 9308070052
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

POLL: MORE PEOPLE PLAN TO BUY NEW CARS

A new national poll taken this week shows a sharp jump in people planning to buy a new vehicle during the next year, suggesting bountiful times ahead for Detroit.

Of 995 people surveyed by Farmington Hills, Mich.-based Market Opinion Research, 15 percent said they are "very likely" to buy a new car or truck in the next 12 months. That's a big jump since MOR's April survey on the same question, when only 9 percent gave this response. In addition, 12 percent said they were "somewhat likely" to buy a new vehicle.

The MOR poll also suggests that Japanese carmakers are being hurt badly by the rising value of the yen vs. the U.S. dollar, which has given Detroit's Big Three a price advantage of $2,000-$2,500 per car over competitors from Japan.

Toyota, Honda and other Japanese carmakers account for only 23.6 percent of U.S. car sales so far this year, down from 27.6 percent in 1991.

When MOR asked people to rate car quality on a scale of 1 to 100, Japanese automakers got a median score of 80; the Big Three rated a 75.

- Knight-Ridder/Tribune

by CNB