Arthur Hailey - Wheels

"Wherever it's going," the technician said, "it ain't gone to Japan - at least not to the plant that produced this clunker. For God's sake, Mr. Trenton! Look at that!"

They examined some of the parts of the Japanese import, the third car they had come to review.

"String and baling wire," Brett pronounced.

"I'll tell you one thing, sir. I wouldn't want anybody I cared about to be riding around in one of those. It's a motorbike on four wheels, and a poor one at that."

They remained at the teardown racks, studying the three cars in detail.

Later, the elderly technician let them out.

At the doorway he asked, "What's coming up next, gentleman? For us, I mean."

"Glad you reminded me," Brett said. "We came over here to ask you."

It would be some kind of small car; that much they all knew. The key question was: What kind?

Later, back at staff headquarters, Adam observed, "For a long time, right up to 1970, a lot of people in this business thought the small car was a fad."

"I was one," Elroy Braithwaite, the Product Development vice-president admitted. The Silver Fox had joined them shortly after Adam's and Brett's return from the teardown room. Now, a group of five - Adam, Brett, Braithwaite, two others from product planning staff - was sprawled around Adam's office suite, ostensibly doing little more than shoot the breeze, but in reality hoping, through channeled conversation, to awaken ideas in each other. Discarded coffee cups and overflowing ashtrays littered tables and window ledges. It was after midnight.

"I thought the small car fever wouldn't last," Braithwaite went on. He put a hand through his silver-gray mane, disordered tonight, which was unusual. "I was in some pretty high-powered company, too, but we've all been wrong. As far as I can see, this industry will be small-car oriented, with muscle cars on the outs, for a long time to come."

"Perhaps forever," one of the other product planners said. He was a bright young Negro with large spectacles, named Castaldy, who had been recruited from Yale a year earlier.

"Nothing's forever," Brett DeLosanto objected. "Hemlines or hair styles or hip language or cars. Right now, though, I agree with Elroy a small car's the status symbol, and it looks like staying."

"There are some," Adam said, "who believe a small car is a nonsymbol. They say people simply don't care about status any more."

Brett retorted, "You don't believe that, any more than I do."

"I don't either," the Silver Fox said. "A good many things have changed these past few years, but not basic human nature. Sure, there's a 'reverse status' syndrome, which is popular, but it adds up to what it always did - an individual trying to be different or superior. Even a dropout who doesn't wash is a status seeker of a kind."

"So maybe," Adam prompted, "we need a car which will appeal strongly to the reverse-status seeker."

The Silver Fox shook his head. "Not entirely. We still have to consider the squares - that big, solid backlog of buyers."

Castaldy pointed out, "But most squares don't like to think of themselves that way. That's why bank presidents wear sideburns."

"Don't we all?" Braithwaite fingered his own.

Above the mild laughter, Adam injected, "Maybe that's not so funny. Maybe it points the way to the kind of car we don't want. That is-anything looking like a conventional car produced until now."

"A mighty big order," the Silver Fox said.

Brett ruminated. "But not impossible."

Castaldy, the young Yale man, reminded them, "Today's environment is part of reverse-status - if we're calling it that. I mean public opinion, dissent, minorities, economic pressures, all the rest."

"True," Adam said, then added, "I know we've been over this a lot of times, but let's list environmental factors again."

Castaldy looked at some notes. "Air pollution: people want to do something."

"Correction," Brett said. "They want other people to do something. No one wants to give up personal transportation, riding in his own car. All our surveys say so."

"Whether that's true or not," Adam said, "the car makers are doing something about pollution and there isn't a lot individuals can do."

"Just the same," young Castaldy persisted, "a good many are convinced that a small car pollutes less than a big one, so they think they can contribute that way. Our surveys show that, too." He glanced back at his notes. "May I go on?"

"I'll try not to heckle," Brett said. "But I won't guarantee it."

"In economics," Castaldy continued, "gas mileage isn't as dominant as it used to be, but parking cost is."

Adam nodded. "No arguing that. Street parking space gets harder to find, public and private parking costs more and more."

"But parking lots in a good many cities are charging less for small cars, and the idea's spreading."

The Silver Fox said irritably, "We know all about that. And we've already agreed we're going the small car route."

Behind his glasses, Castaldy appeared hurt.

"Elroy," Brett DeLosanto said, "the kid's helping us think. So if that's what you want, quit pulling rank."

"My God!" the Silver Fox complained. "You birds are sensitive. I was just being myself."

"Pretend to be a nice guy," Brett urged. "Instead of a vice-president."

"You bastard!" But Braithwaite was grinning. He told Castaldy, "Sorry! Let's go on."

"What I really meant, Mr. Braithwaite"

"Elroy . . ."

"Yes, sir. What I meant was - it's part of the whole picture."

They talked about environment and mankind's problems: over-population, a shortage of square footage everywhere, pollution in all forms, antagonisms, rebellion, new concepts and values among young people - the young who would soon rule the world. Yet, despite changes, cars would still be around for the foreseeable future; experience showed it. But what kind of cars? Some would be the same as now, or similar, but there must be other kinds, too, more closely reflecting society's needs.

"Speaking of needs," Adam queried, "can we sum them up?"

"If you wanted a word," Castaldy answered, "I'd say 'utitity."'

Brett DeLosanto tried it on his tongue. "The Age of Utility."

"I'll buy that in part," the Silver Fox said. "But not entirely." He motioned for silence while gathering thoughts. The others waited. At length he intoned slowly, "Okay, so utility's 'in.' It's the newest status symbol, or reverse-status - and we're agreed that whatever name you call it it means the same thing. I'll concede it's probably for the future, too. But that still doesn't allow for the rest of human nature: the impulse to mobility which is with us from the day we're born, and later a craving for power, speed, excitement which we never grow out of wholly. We're all Walter Mittys somewhere inside and, utility or not, pizazz is 'in,' too. It's never been out. It never will be."

"I go with that," Brett said. "To prove your point look at the guys who build dune buggies. They're small car people who've found a Walter Mitty outlet."

Castaldy added thoughtfully, "And there are thousands and thousands of dune buggies. More all the time. Nowadays you even see them in cities."

The Silver Fox shrugged. "They take a utility Volkswagen without pizazz, strip it to the chassis, then build pizazz on."

A thought stirred in Adam's mind. It related to what had been said . . . to the torn-down Volkswagen he had seen earlier tonight . . . and to something else, hazy: a phrase which eluded him . . . He searched his mind while the others talked.

When the phrase failed to come he remembered a magazine illustration he had seen a day or two ago. The magazine was still in his office. He retrieved it from a pile across the room and opened it. The others watched curiously.