European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 29, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday May 29, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 17money matters today s tip Don t look now but Uncle Sam is Messing with your Money. The government is inserting a nearly invisible vertical thread and adding a microscopic line of Type to most of its Bills to foil counterfeiters using state of the Art color copiers. Ira Polikoff a spokesman for the Treasury departments Bureau of engraving and printing said the changes will be Subtle. Polikoff said he expects that in late summer the government will introduce new $100 Bills. Those will be changed first because the $100 Bills now in circulation a Are the most susceptible to counterfeiting a he said. Later in the year new $50 and $20 Bills will be added followed in the next year or two by new $10 and $5 Bills. Conversion rates London up tuesdays rates for the . Dollar to other currencies. Figures Are expressed in dollars to the British Pound other local currencies in dollars Gold was quoted at $359.25 an ounce Silver at $4.18. May 27 May 28 1.7435 British Pound. A German Mark. 1.703 1.7005 French franc. ______.5.785 5.812 dutch Guilder. 1.9135 1.9246 belgian franc. .35.02 35 235 italian lira. 1,266.00 1,271.65 Swiss franc. 1.4515 1.447 greek drachma. 186.55 187.33 turkish lira. 4.007.10 4,025.00 saudi arabian Riyal 3.7701 3.7501 Spanish peseta. .105.43 105.95 portuguese escudo. Canadian Dollar. .14835 148.97 .1.1482. 1.1468 austrian Schilling. 11.947. .12.017 norwegian Krone. .6 62. 1.662 danish Krone 6.51 6.5445 these Are unofficial rates As reported by wire service and banking sources and they Are listed to give some idea of daily currency fluctuations. The. Only official rate concerns the Sale of German Marks to . Personnel for personal use and this will be l67 wednesday based on tuesdays noontime Price fixing. Recession seen As continuing los Angeles up shoppers and salespeople surveyed monday at one of the West coasts Ritz Iest malls remained unconvinced that the sputtering Economy is recovering. A people Are still out buying things but it looks to me As if they re thinking a lot More about it than they used to a asking themselves if they really need an item a said Natasha Graham a Sale clerk at the Westside Pavilion in the Rancho Park area. _ economists received some Hope that the recession was nearly Over two weeks ago when the . Commerce. Department reported a slight 0.1 percent decline in retail sales for april and a big revision of the March figure to an increase of 0.4 percent from a decline of 0.8 percent. Many retail analysts have said shoppers have become used to seeing discounted merchandise and now expect it As a requirement to open up their Check books. A a in a looking for some new running shoes but in a not going to buy them unless they re on Sale Quot Mike Hayes said at the mall. Trend to buy almost new adds to automakers woes by Doron p. Levin the new York times Detroit a two Gray Ford Taurus sedans seemingly identical sit in a car dealer s showroom. One fresh from the factory has a sticker Price of about $16,900.the second is almost but not quite new shiny and still under warranty it began life As a Hertz rental car logged 8,000 Miles Over four months and is priced at $12,500. To the annoyance of american car makers More shoppers arc deciding that at today a new car prices a almost new is Good enough. This year some 2 million almost new cars or about 25 percent of the depressed new car Market Are cycling Back from rental companies and other big car fleets and winding up in driveways. Detroit created this Market in an Effort to address the slump in new car sales a few years ago but the idea backfired. The big three automakers were trying to keep sales up by enticing rental companies a several of which Are controlled by automakers a into buying More new cars and trading in used cars sooner. Their intention was to keep Assembly lines humming avoid layoffs hold Down inventories of unsold cars and put More new cars on the Road. The idea worked Only too Well. No one then envisioned How budding enthusiasm for almost new cars would Boomerang amid one of the worst sales droughts in years Detroit has in effect created a car Market in which it loses Money twice a when it Sells the cars at deep discounts to the rental companies and when it Sells the used cars through auctions to dealers. Other than the Bosses in Detroit everyone is Happy even the new car dealers who after wresting from the automakers the right to resell rental cars say they make More Money Selling an almost new car than they do Selling a new one. For an Industry that seems chronically under siege from outside forces Detroit admits it has Only itself to blame a a it a a monster we let out of the Box a said Rob cart Lutz president of Chrysler corp. Detroit a japanese rivals do not have a problem with rental cars since they have enjoyed stronger retail demand for their cars than Domestic automakers and have sold proportionally fewer cars to rental companies. Honda motor co. Has never sold cars to rental companies. Maryann n. Keller an automotive Stock analyst for Furman Selz inc. In new York said a car companies thought this would be a no brainer. The flaw in their logic was they sold too Many cars to the rental  but if a Lincoln which can be rented for Only $29 a Day can be bought at a deep discount buying a new one would seem to have fading symbolic value. As concerns mount in Detroit Over the Scarcity of new car buyers. General motors corp., Ford motor co. And Chrysler Are searching for a Way to shrink the almost new car Market. The ideas Range from telling rental fleets to keep cars longer and put More Miles on them to in Gmys Case shipping some Small almost new cars to Poland to avoid More Money losing sales to americans./. A a a a Quot Chrysler has not come up with a solution but a we have to find one Quot Lutz Aid. A a. V. A a v a today you be got to be crazy to buy a new car a said Jim Goss a manager of Brown Pontiac in Toledo Ohio. New car customers Are often stunned when they try to sell within a year or two of Purchase he added because the values drop so much. A that is because the rising flood of almost new cars is depressing resale values of other used cars dealers say and blurring the distinction Between almost new and much More expensive new vehicles. Goss crisscrossed the Midwest visiting As Many As three auctions a week. Early in May lie and scores of other pm dealers attended a a pm Day at the Atco Auto auction in Taylor mich., near Detroit. In a carnival like amnio sphere about 500 1991 pm cars Light trucks and minivans were arranged on a stadium size parking lot. About every 30 seconds the auctioneer slapped a piece of Garden Hose on the Edge of a table to Seal the Deal for a former rental car to a new car dealer. By the end of the Day almost All the cars were on their Way to the dealers for buyers such As Deere Hollis. A few weeks ago Hollis bought an almost new Buick Skylark with 7,000 Miles air conditioning and Power windows for $8,900 from Fox Buick in Baltimore the base Price of a new 1991 Skylark without the extras is $10,725. A i looked at new cars a Hollis said a and the prices were outrageous. When it conies time to buy again. Ill look for something that s almost new a indeed Hollis bought her daughter an almost new Geo prism for $8,500. A new Model ranges from $�?~>,640 to about $12,000, depending on the options. Sales statistics show that the big three still have about 70 percent of the new car Market. But after excluding sales to rental and car leasing fleets Detroit s share is about 50 percent. The rental business a was no to always so  Detroit Quot said Keller. When retail sales of certain models were soft a Large Sale to a rental company even at a discount allowed an Auto maker to sidestep the costly process of idling a factory for a week or two. Rental fleets though eager for new models at favourable prices had to Grap pie with disposing of used cars. For a while they sold them on their own lots to bargain Hunters or Back to new car dealers who sold them As used cars. But used car lots operated by rental companies put them in Competition with new car dealers. Car dealers complained that automakers sold new cars to rental fleets at unfairly Low prices. The conflict simmered until about three years ago when the financial incentives offered to rental companies resulted in millions of cars being sold to rental fleets each year. The National automobile dealers association threatened Legal action asserting that the deals Between the factory. And the fleets were hurting dealer franchise agreements. Bowing to pressure the automakers starting in 1989, agreed to buy Back All or most rental cars and resell them through dealers. V pm and Ford agreed to buy Back All their cars and Chrysler oked 75 percent. Franchised dealers would. Be Able to buy them from the automakers at dozens of auctions and then resell them. A then we said hey if we re going to guarantee to buy All these ears Back we want them to be bought with equipment on them a said Terrence p. Sullivan a pm spokesman. To make the vehicles even More attract live car makers agreed to Honor Mantac Turer warranties and even extend them for a Small fee so that Many buyers would have the same Protection As new car buyers. U it regains Ingri Reykjavik Iceland a Iceland says it will leave the International whaling commission unless the commission approves resumption of commercial whaling for the country. Thorsteinn Palsson told the opening session of the commissions meeting on monday that Iceland wants to kill 192 Minke and 91 Fin whales next season. The commission has no Power to Stop Iceland from whaling if it drops out. It could face Trade and fishing sanctions if it resumes whaling but officials have said that threat does not deter them. A unless the commission is prepared to take seriously its responsibilities icelanders. Will have to look elsewhere in order to live up to their commitment to cooperate within an appropriate International organization for the management of cetaceans a Palsson said. The commission was unlikely to Grant Iceland permission to catch whales however pending approval of a revised management plan. Norway and Japan also have applied for limited commercial Hunts. When the commission imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986, it also set a 1990 deadline for revising its policy on whale manage Palsson ment. The revision is a year overdue and whaling nations Are impatient. At Issue is whether whale populations have grown to the Point where some Hunting should be allowed. At the Start of its five Day meeting the commission was presented with five whale management proposals developed by its . The proposal is designed to yield higher catches while still allowing stocks to grow. But the plans author has repudiated it saying that More rigorous tests of. His data and computer models have shown it would not sufficiently protect minkes in the Antarctic. All five plans would Lead to commercial Hunters killing thousands of Minke whales in the Antarctic where an estimated 760,000 live. After agreeing on a revised management plan the commission still must decide whether to lift the ban on commercial whaling and if so set catch limits