March 12, 1986

''We were starting to wonder if America would ever get up the gumption to build cars like the Taurus and the Sable: Friendly to look at, functional to use, and full of the world's best technology.'' So begins a typically breezy, opinionated review of the new line of midsize cars from the Ford Motor Company in Car and Driver, one of the influential auto enthusiast magazines that help shape the public's taste in cars. Known in the auto industry as ''buff books,'' the major magazines in the field have grown fat and prosperous on a monthly formula of detailed auto testing, news about future models, a big dollop of fantasy and a resolute conviction that cars are among the most interesting and enjoyable things in life. The Big 3 Magazines Although there are more than 100 magazines covering one aspect or another of the automobile business, the general interest segment of the market has been dominated in the past, like the domestic auto industry, by a Big Three - Car and Driver, Road & Track and Motor Trend.

An article by The Associated Press yesterday on the tornado in the Middle West, which damaged planes at Greater Cincinnati International Airport, described a DC-9 airliner incorrectly. It has two engines, not four.

Over the years, countless travelers have learned the future, along with their weight, by plunking a penny in the chrome and mirrored scale in the Greyhound Bus terminal here. But the scale, broken long ago, now reveals just a blank card. It foretells the fate of the terminal itself. With ridership falling, Greyhound has announced plans to close stations in Syracuse, Binghamton and Albany by July 1. These stations, along with 32 others throughout the country, will move to smaller, leased facilities in nearby suburbs.

Markets Wall Street recorded one of its its biggest gains ever in a single session as the public, driven by shrinking yields in the money markets and other investments sensitive to interest rates, plowed funds into stocks. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 43.10 points, its second-largest one-day gain, to close at a record 1,746.05. Other market gauges were equally buoyant. Trading volume soared to its fifth-heaviest level ever. [ Page A1. ] Strong gains in the bond market continued, as prices for outstanding Treasury issues rose as much as 1 1/2 points, and the yield of the bellwether 30-year issue fell to 7.92 percent - the lowest level since December 1977. [ D17. ] The dollar declined. Many traders expect Government reports to show a sluggish U.S. economy, which could depress interest rates. Gold rose $1.75, reaching $343.50 an ounce in New York. [ D18. ] Treasury bond futures soared to levels last seen eight years ago on the belief that interest rates would go still lower. [ D18. ] Companies Revco received an offer from senior executives to acquire the company for $33 a share in cash and shares of preferred stock that it valued at an additional $3 a share, or a total of $1.16 billion. The nation's largest drugstore chain said it had set up a committee to evaluate the bid. [ D1. ] American Air expects to be unprofitable in the first quarter because of fierce fare-cutting. Analysts said other airlines would also have losses in the current quarter.

City investigators have impounded records of the Taxi and Limousine Commission after discovering that taxi medallions and documents at commission headquarters had disappeared or been tampered with, city officials reported yesterday. The new investigation, according to the officials, was the reason behind the sudden departure Monday of the commission chairman, Jay L. Turoff, who two weeks ago had said he planned to resign effective April 30. While details of the inquiry were unclear, the officials said that Kenneth Conboy, the city's newly appointed Commissioner of Investigation, was looking into the possibility that the tampering was designed to impede investigations into allegations that the commission improperly issued taxi medallions, the valuable licenses required on the hood of every yellow taxicab in New York City. Turoff Questioned on Cab Experiment Some of the missing medallions, which disappeared early Friday, turned up later in a garbage can, city officials said. They said that other medallions still have not been accounted for.