The V8 engine came to Chrysler of Canada's low-priced models in 1955.

Chris Gorog, Napster's chairman and chief executive, said he did not think that a low-priced model could last long.

However, those talks have been held up by Chrysler's insistence that it has to cut labor costs if it is to make such low-priced models profitably.

Some low-priced models have only one water level.

Many low-priced models plug directly into the ear canal (Koss's removable-band CR/7, $15, can be converted to this use).

Still, a spokesman for NEC acknowledged today that growing price competition caused the company to accelerate its plans to introduce newer low-priced models.

With the new wave of low-priced models from South Korea, Yugoslavia and Brazil entering the American market, G.M. can no longer make that claim.

Yet it offers a cartridge filter that typically isn't found in low-priced models.

The major manufacturers at the time had little interest in low-priced models.

The car was the brainchild of Walter P. Chrysler, who wanted to round out his offerings with a low-priced model.