U.S. Auto Makers Hit for Hiking Prices as Yen Has Soared

U.S. auto makers have not taken advantage of the high Japanese yen, instead raising their prices along with those of imported Japanese cars, the outgoing president of Nissan Motor Manufacturing Corp. U.S.A. said today.

Marvin Runyon said U.S. car companies could have increased their sales “tremendously” by holding prices steady while Japanese companies were forced to raise prices as the yen doubled in value against the dollar since 1985.

“But it didn’t happen. They raised their prices an awfully lot,” he told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan.

Runyon, who retired from Nissan at the end of December to become chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority, said U.S. auto makers also boosted truck prices by about $900 less than a month after tariffs on imported trucks were increased by $900 in 1980 in efforts to make the U.S. industry more competitive.