The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 29

Pittsburgh Press, Dec. 26, 1978 C-5 Business Finance Datsun Rolls On Front- Wheel Drive costly vapor recovery systems could add another six to 10 percentage points to the drop and that would put the ber at one-third less, a significant drop. There will be two models, a hatchback sedan in which the standard transmission is a four-speed stick, and a GX coupe with a five-speed stick. Interestingly, the imports are getting bigger while U. S.

cars are shrinking. The 310 will be five inches longer, four inches wider, than its F-10 predecessor. It will be built on a 94.3-inch wheelbase and weigh about 2,000 pounds The new Datsun will have an "innovative" remote-control device that will allow the driver to open and close the rear side windows. The 310 is rated by the Environmental Protection Agency at 27 miles per gallon. By WILLIAM ALLAN Press Features Editor Datsun is introducing a new front-wheel drive car, if you still are wondering how the car of the future will look.

It's called the 310, replaces the F-10 series and will start at $4,829. The 310 joins Plymouth Horizon, Dodge Omni, Volkswagen Rabbit, Ford Fiesta, Honda Civic and Accord, Subaru and the new Chrysler imports, Plymouth Champ and Dodge Dart in the front-wheel drive sector. General Motors is set to introduce its front-wheel drive early next year. The engine is up front, but mounted across the car, and drives the front wheels, saving the need to transmit the power to the rear wheels. It makes for efficiency, and without the drive shaft, there's more room in the passenger and trunk compartments.

Getting back to Datsun, the 310 has the proven 1400-cubic centimeter Datsun four-cylinder engine that develops 65 horsepower. Standard features include steel ra-dials, tinted glass, electric rear defroster, reclining bucket seats and full, cut-pile carpeting. 1 -4 HMHiif' rnif-nintr ifnuiifr nnlr ii .1 Strong Economy Worries Washington CONTINENTAL OIL, the big Texas energy company, has begun a voluntary program to save energy itself. "The biggest thing we've done is to stop our trucks from speeding," reports Jerry Hedges, Conoco's operations manager of surface transportation. He's speaking of the big, over-the-road gasoline tankers, and adds that the program is "in depth." The firm has installed devices to chart the speed, miles and hours each truck is driven, and the charts are checked daily by supervisors.

First offense for going over 55 mph gets a reprimand, second nets a week's suspension without pay and the third results in mandatory dismissal. Hedges reports that Conoco is getting the same amount of product hauled in the same length of time and using the same number of trucks, but drivers "may be spending less time drinking coffee." In addition, the firm has conducted its V-i'y AN EYEFUL A giant seven-inch self JT. 11 i ro" vi vi Al i PETER S. NAGAN WASHINGTON Far from showing signs of an imminent recession, the economy actually is going too strong to suit many officials in Washington. Just about every business statistic to come along in recent weeks has shown exceptional gains.

The numbers are exceeding the expectations of virtually all forecasters. Normally, that would be grounds for rejoicing. Everyone, including politicians, likes to see good economic figures. They mean more income and gains in real buying power for consumers and bigger profits for businessmen. Skyrocketing Oil Price Benefit: A Lead To Other Energy Sources By EDWIN DARBY CHICAGO Looking at the oil price hike dictated by the petroleum-producing combine (OPEC) from the long-range viewpoint, there is one benefit for the country.

The higher the price of oil, the better the chance that other sources of energy will be developed and used from coal to the more exotic ones like solar energy. A lot of the technology is there, or in the experimental stage. Cost, money, is the factor. It makes no sense to invest own wind tunnel tests that determined that cab-over tractors are "like a wall going down the road." The firm will buy fewer of them in the future. Conoco also has decided to specify the lightest equipment available, has gone exclusively to radial tires and is installing wind deflectors where appicable.

IN ITS INFINITE WISDOM, the U. S. Department of Transportation has participated in a joint study with Russia, comparing the roles of the automobile and public transportation in the urban environment in the two countries. Result: 90 percent of urban trips in the U.S. are by auto; 90 percent of urban trips in Russia are by public transit.

Also, it looks as though that will be the case in the near future. FRANK H. McKEAN, president of McKean Oldsmobile, was recently elected president of the Greater Pittsburgh Honda Dealers Association. William R. Baierl, president of Baierl Chevrolet in Wexford, was elected vice president.

The organization represents six dealers in Western Pennsylvania. A locking nut developed for the drive Taste the difference fresh makes. Howdy to one fresf n- When you purchase a Chicken Platter you get a second Chicken Platter free with this coupon. LIMIT ONE PER CUSTOMER OFFER GOOD THROUGH DEC. 31, 1978 -mmmimmr- wlM -iimA iters 'Adj.

-w Industrial Robots Aid Men In Tough Jobs with Datsun 310. being forecast by Arthur D. Little Inc. The outlook is for a 23 percent drop from the present 171,300 to 132,000 nationally by 1981, according to Little, which points to slim profit margins, a static demand and "a continued slide in the amount of money oil companies are willing to sink into marketing." What's more, Little says contemplated anti-pollution regulations requiring cent growth of the July-September period. Earlier, most analysts had been expecting less than 4 percent some, a lot less than that.

Certainly, the growth is going outside the narrow channel of not too much strength and not too much weakness that Federal Reserve Board Chairman G. William Miller has said is the proper course for the United States at this time. Miller and some of his colleagues at the credit-controlling Fed find it disturbing that the economy is growing so briskly at a time when inflation is so rapid and persistent. To some, it smacks of a speculative binge that increases the potential for a severe recession next year. Some authorities fear that consumers are spending more than seems justified by their increases in real incomes.

Maybe they are trying to anticipate further price increases to come. Though the savings rate has fallen to a very low level and consimer debt burdens are heavy, high dollar incomes may be fostering an illusion of wealth and a readiness to go even deeper into debt. If allowed to continue, this sort of attitude could make a recession maybe a sharp one inevitable. At some point, people will have to cut back their buying perhaps dramatically. On the supply side, the amount of goods can't be increased substantially without inflationary strains, bcause the rate of utilization of overall plant capacity is approaching the peaks of 1973.

Because of these concerns, there must be substantial sentiment for making some moves to cool the undue strength the economy is showing. And this seems to suggest that money will be tightened further and that interest rates will go higher. Paperboard, Paper Demand Record Seen Dm Mm tana NEW YORK U.S. production of paper and paperboard is expected to reach a new high of some 63.5 million tons this year, a gain of 2.6 percent from 1977, according to the American Paper Institute. The gains are expected despite strikes on the West Coast and elsewhere, "which may have drained 2 percent from potential supply in 1978," the organization added.

The Institute stated that "in 1978 paper demand grew faster than business activity as a whole." The consumption of paper and paper-board responding to upward trends in printed advetising, the use of computer papers and packaging requirements, showed strong growth, the group reported. The 5 percent in new supply, production plus imports minus exports, was significantly better than the 3.8 percent growth in overall business activity, according to the Institute. Koppers, Ivy Move On Merger Koppers Co. Inc. and Ivy Corp.

of Atlanta said they have signed a definitive merger agreement previously approved by their boards. The agreement calls for the merger of Ivy with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Koppers on the basis of .6 of a share of Koppers for each Ivy share. Ivy shareholders still must approve the deal at a meeting planned for late January. Ivy manufactures construction materials' and products. Global Dividend 7c Directors of Global Real Estate Investment Trust of Washington, have declared a regular quarterly dividend of 7 cents per common share, payable Jan.

9 to shareholders of record Dec. 27. assembly of a U.S. Army tank dwarfs a tiny nut used for assembly of electronic components produced at the Jenkintown, Montgomety County, plant of SPS Technologies LtiS- I-Hiiii What's up front counts such things as trip routing, reimbursement for emergency road towing and ambulance service, bail bonds, insurance, discounts for hotels and car rentals all for $29.75 a month. Long-range plans are to have the club in all 50 states and open to all drivers, regardless of the vehicle they drive.

FEWER GASOLINE STATIONS are What's more, the figures on the number with jobs keep coming in strong; more than 500,000 were added to payrolls last month. Similarly, new orders which foreshadow future hiring and productive activity have been strong for several months. And housing starts are holding at a high pace, while new home sales continue brisk. As a result of all this strength, economists are now predicting that so-called real Gross National Product total output of goods and services in real, rather than inflated dollar terms will be rising at a 4 Mi to 5 annual rate percent this quarter. That compares with the 3.4 per- counting the 14.5 per cent gouge announced by OPEC.

But solar energy is still costly, experimental, and valuable only as a supplemental source of energy in any locale where the sun does not shine all day. There's more talk about the huge Rocky Mountain deposits of oil shale, very possibly the country's largest potential source of oil, than there is action. Chicago's Commonwealth Edison and the U.S. Energy Department have just canceled a major experiment meant to prove out a system for extracting gas from coal, and other similar projects are being held in abeyance. Robert Reininga, a stock market analyst specializing in energy companies at the Harris Bank here, calls it the "horizon effect." "Once," he says, "it was thought that if the price of oil ever climbed to $5 a barrel, the production of oil from shale would turn into an absolute bonanza.

"But in this inflationary climate, it has been like walking toward the horizon. You walk, walk, and walk, the horizon retreats, and you are just as far away as ever. "With the inflation we've had and the price of conventional oil has been one factor in that inflation the cost of getting oil out of shale and the cost of developing other alternatives just keeps going up and up." Commonwealth Edison's coal gasification project was dropped because the estimated cost had already jumped from $167 million to $224 million. One day we'll get off this particular treadmill. "The horizon effect can't go on forever," Reininga says.

We'll get inflation under some kind of control and the price of oil, from the OPEC members and elsewhere, will reach a point where it can't go any higher even if we are all riding mopeds or powered bicycles. Coal, in its more or less natural form, remains with nuclear power the best and most practical alternate fuel source. But there are environmental and political problems with nuclear energy and environmental, transport, and conversion problems with coal. The latest price increases no doubt mean that the oil industry will make more and more use of one of the easiest, most significant ways of boosting U.S. production of crude oil secondary and tertiary recovery, pumping water or special chemicals into existing wells to extract oil left in the ground by conventional methods.

Until the turmoil in Iran cut that country's oil production from more than 5 million barrels a day to something like 1 million, the new production from Alaska and the North Sea had helped create a world surplus of crude oil, a fact that made it difficult for the OPEC members to even maintain the price of oil, much less enforce a price boost. No matter what kind of regime ends up in power in Iran, oil as the country's only significant asset will flow again. But apparently OPEC will have time to adjust to that supply-demand reality. FmM Ness Strvict RENTSALE COMMERCIAL BLDG. 3700 liberty Av.

Modem, AC, Porking 10,000 Sq. Ft. Principals; 361-3057 ma, Sltt Forvtri lw. It's snap to send orijinil birthday, anniversary, et wel, con(ratulations or other special occasion wishes. AI it takes are Press and Post-Gazette HAPPY ADS.

Just cat 263-1201 to place your HAPPY AD. A ATTENTION THE DEADLINE WITH THE MAS BEEN PASSAGE OF ACT AFTER THE JULY NOT REGISTERED THE ATTEST PERFORM OPINION ANYONE WHO PUBLIC ACCOUNTING THE SIX VEARS BOARD. ALSO, THOSE WHO 1976, BUT WHO JOINING SEPARATION APPLICATIONS STATE BOARD HARRISBURG, PA. PENNSYLVANIA GRANT BUILDING PENNSYLVANIA STREET HERMITAGE, FORD AUTO CLUB is the latest new idea from Ford. Through its subsidiary, the American Road Services the automaker is currently test marketing the new club in four states, the closest being Ohio.

Plans are to have the club "fully competitive with other auto clubs" (like the American Automobile Association) with But not this time. The rate of inflation is too rapid these days and the dollar is under pressure again in the foreign exchange markets two factors that make a great deal of difference in evaluating the implications of the good business figures. Taken alone, it's hard to quibble when retail sales show a jump of 2 percent between October and November, while the October number is being revised upward from a half-percent decline to a plus of 1.3 percent. And who can complain at the rise of 0.7 percent in industrial production last month that was reported last Friday a rate of close to 9 percent a year? $100 million in a risky project if the end product can't be sold at a profit. Whatever the alternative to oil, the product must be put on the market at a price that is near that of oil, including a profit margin that will allow the developer to recover the considerable expense of development.

That is, barring a national crisis where cost and price might be beside the point. So the price of oil has skyrocketed since 1973 and the Arab oil embargo crisis from $2.40 a barrel to $12.70, not their task by being initially manually manipulated to perform a task. The task is then stored in a memory bank and the robot can then draw from the memory to perform it later. One spray-painting robot on display at a recent Chicago conference drew cartoons of Snoopy to the delight of onlookers and was capable of holding 65 different spraying patterns. Another arm-like robot picked up small light bulbs and placed them in the dashboard of a car after instructions were typed onto a computer keyboard.

"It may be possible someday to even give instructions to a robot by voice," said an engineer as he stood next to a robot sprayer model used to put heat-resistant coating on the nose of the U.S. space shuttle. While workers tire easily on certain factory jobs, industry representatives said, robots can perform chores with consistency and without the worry about "different work quality between Monday and Wednesday." And in jobs like precision welding the mechanical hand is steadier than the human one, they said. One robot used in a car plant took the place of two men who had to work full-time lifting 30-pound transmission casings. Robot machines also can handle dangerous jobs such as heavy casting in which workers might be exposed to lung-damaging silicate figments.

"You talk to any man who lost a hand in a press," Ford said. "He'd rather supervise a robot than feed the press himself." Industry officials said robots won't drive man out of the workplace. Although robots may cause some job displacement, they actually will create more jobs in the long-run. "Robots are just another means of tomotion," Ford said. "And more jobs have always been created by automation.

You have the need for people to take care of the machines and supervise them. You have new jobs springing up from ancillary services and the productivity Automakers routinely use robots for welding and are exploring them for other uses. A Ford Motor Co. representative at the conference said the company has more than 200 robots. Will the science of robotics ever lead to R2-D2-type robots in the average household? "Currently there are no commercially available household robots that I know of," Ford said.

"But maybe in 10 or 20 years with the way technology is developing they will be available with a high degree of sophistication." But Bill Uhde, regional sales manager for Unimation the nation's largest robot manufacturer, said robots will never have the personality of R2-D2. "I don't think they'll act as friends," he said. "I don't think you'd want to play golf with them." And, after all, industry officials said, computer-driven, sophisticated robots would only behave according to their programming. ml Say of my "Our Pappy Parker fried chicken is 100 FRESH. We 'prepare each piece with our "own special recipe of fresh eggs an' seasoned flour.

Then it's fried to a dee-licious golden brown. We'll add crisp, western fries an" fresh creamy cole slow to make it a big, deiicious meal! So c'mon in you'll taste the difference. You've got my word on it, pardner." CHICAGO (UPI) Industrial robots, although may not be lovable like R2-D2 of Star Wars fame, are helping man handle dangerous, monotonous jobs with high efficiency. "These robots are not humanoid and are not like the robot conception of science fiction," said Brian Ford of the Robot Institute of America. "But they are man's friends because they can prevent persons from having to do very tedious or hazardous jobs.

"We have seen in some cases 2-1 production gains over using an individual. The robot doesn't take a toilet break or go to lunch or come in late." Industry spokesman say robot production is a growing business now at $35 million a year with five major manufacturers in the United States and an increasing number of companies, including automakers, turning to the mechanical helpers. Worldwide, they say, about 4,000 robots are in use. The robots mainly fixed machines with arm-like appendages range from fairly simple machines costing several thousand dollars to complex computer-directed systems with price tags above $80,000 that can perform a number of duties, such as casting, welding or spray painting. Ford, industrial robot systems manager for ASEA, an electrical manufacturing company, said generally a machine is considered a robot if it is "flexible as opposed to dedicated" to one type of task.

They can be "taught" either a number of jobs or how to do a task differently, he said. Ford said the flexibility allows for the same machine to be used on different production runs without becoming obsolete. Some robots can be taught to perform STRICTLY BUSINESS "You'll find he's not on easy" man to do business with." nr i Then, Say Howdy to one Free! i BUY1, GET1 FREE PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS! FOR PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS IN PENNSYLVANIA TO REGISTER STATE BOARD OF EXAMINERS OF PUBLIC ACCOUN-TANTS EXTENDED TO JULY l7 WITH THE RECENT JBY THE STATE LEGISLATURE. 1979 DEADLINE, PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS WHO ARE WILL LOSE THEIR LEGAL AUTHORITY TO EXERCISE FUNCTION AND THEREFORE WILL NOT BE PERMITTED TO AUDITS. WAS ENGAGED AS A PRINCIPAL IN THE PRACTICE OF (RATHER THAN AS AN EMPLOYEE) ON OR DURING PRIOR TO DECEMBER Wi, MAY REGISTER WITH THE WERE IN THE ARMED SERVICES AS OF DECEMBER PRACTICED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING AS A PRINCIPAL BEFORE THE MILITARY, MAY APPLY WITHIN SIX MONTHS AFTER FROM ACTIVE DUTY.

FOR REGISTRATION ARE AVAILABLE FROM: OF EXAMINERS OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS, BOX 17120 (PHONE: 717-7833615) INSTITUTE OF CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS, 715 PITTSBURGH, PA. 1 5219 (PHONE: 41J-J6I-6966) SOCIETY OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS, 10 EAST STATE PA. I6U6 (PHONE: 4W-98I-373I) APPLICATIONS FOR REGISTRATION WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED AFTER JULY 1, 1979. I RESTAURANT THIS Pleasant Hills Monroeville Greentree Downtown Oakland Rochester North Huntingdon.