Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-06-02
FACTS ABOUT :'|g|U7T MOTORS
DIFFICULTIES w!tH1cH THREATEN
STEAM WAGON INDUSTRY.
The Average Motorist Does Not I'm
.atg
derstand Mechanics Of His
Machine.

Paris Corr. London EXPRESS.
1t is a remarkable fact that at a time
when the motor-cars Industry is seemingly
| in the zenith of its prosperity it should
have to contend with a number of serious
difficulties which threaten to hinder it's
development for many years unless the
remedy is found. In the first place. to
| borrow the words Of M. Lumet, the dis
| tingushed engineer in charge of the tech
meal section of the French Automobile
Club 1.-THE public are not yet educated up
| to the motor They do not sufficiently
understand 1t, and 1t Is for this reason
that so many people who buy a motor car
to be ''in the run. tire of it after a year
or so.
who has no sooner mastered the details of
his first motor than he wants to sell 1t and
! purchase a high-speed machine, but of the
average man who, as rule, possesses but
very confused notions about the laws
governing mechanics A few breakdowns,
| the difficulty which an inexperienced man
| finds in setting right the most trivial acct
dents-for every motor has its own peculiar
little Withstand the ultimate necessity Of
constantly employing trained mechanic.
quickly discourage the man who lima gines
| that the only essential thing he requires to
| know about a motor is how to drive it.
The Manufacturers Sin.
Unfortunately the manufacturers them
selves are greatly to blame for the COM
parative slowness of the public education
| in the matter of motors. The sole desire
| OF large number Of manufacturers seems
| to be to turn over as much money as pos
| sible in the shortest space Of time; and
| this is one of the principal reasons why
| So many of them are at the present time
/ ind of
1t is surprising to- discover that so few
| of the great motor manufacturing firms are
| being worked at profit to the sharehold-
erS, but ii must be borne in mind that
| every one of the perfected models of cars
! put on the market by the great firms rep
resents an enormous outlay in preliminary
expenditure and in trial constructions be-
| fore the perfected model has been obtain
ed Every year new improvements are
| being made which add to the COST and as
| unfortunately under the present system
there is an enormous amount of waste and
Of extravagant management even in the
best Of motor factories, the natural result
| Is that. with a few praiseworthy excep-
| tons. the public are made to pay the piper
| A car lacking in perfect execution Is put
| on the market at price which Is about
five times what 1t ought to be; This is
one of the reasons why the public tire SO
| quickly of motor cars and why there are
! so many secondhand, machines now being
offered for sale. -, Va,
The Middieman.
Another great dImcuity is the existence
| of the mIddleman. When a private GUS
| toner applies direct to a good maker he is
| almost invariably told that he must wait
six months, year, eighteen months. or
even longer for tbe, car he orders Why is
| this? Because the niddlemen in view Of
| the great demand n0nopolize the output
| of the more prominent makers. They know
| haf 10 flAeSp INafN ont rQ
| to wait year for his car, and that he
| must, therefore. come to them The re-
| suit Is that the middleman sells him the
| car at an increase on) the manufacturer 8
| retail price of between 40 and 200 per cent.
! AS an instance, of the sort of thing the
public have to put up with I may mention
| the case of standard type of car, the
J catalogue price Of which Is ego net. The
manufacturer Is able TO, turn out this car
| at a cost price to himself of ESQ. and the
middleman takes 100, or actually more than
the car cost to build.
The middleman himself has numerous
| agents to whom he pays a liberal commits
| sion. Moreover, he generally appoints some
| well-known racing man as his nominal
manager, and for this. of course, he has to
pay pretty stif1y. The public who buy
motor. cars have great faith In racing
men and In cars which win races.
A Necessary Evil.
The middleman is. unfortunately. neces-
] SdTy eNll, anu Inc HdnuidCluicL Illus IL
| impossible to do without him. The reason
| is simple enough. The manufacturer is al
ways in doubt as to whether a particular
type Of car will please the public, and he
| invariably tends toward limiting his imme-
| date production much as possible. The
middleman relieves the manufacturer of all
anxiety on the subject by ordering whole
series of cars from him at once on seeing
| a. single sample car. The manufacturer Is
| thus sure of his OUTPUT. and makes at
| tempt to OverprOduce.
AS things now are there are too many in
| termedate profits in the motor trade too
| many liberal commissions for winch the
| customer has to pay. Many people look
| upon this sort of thing as extoruon, ana
| either abandon the idea of purchasing
motor or else think they are acting clever
| ly in going to a job manufacturer VINO puts
| together a motor composed Of one part by
one well-knOwn firm, another part by an
other well-known firm, and third portion
| by a third well-known maker. Inc mex
perienced purchaser SuppoSeS that ne can
| not go far wrong in ordering such a car,
seeing that all the component parts are py
| well-known makers. He soon discovers his
mistake. None of the various component
| parts of his thus thrown together were
ever made to work in with each other, and
| soon there Is breakdown, Followed Dy
others at frequent intervals.
| The great beauty of the cars built by the
| leading manufacturers is the perfect har-
| mony with which all the parts of the car
| work together for they have been manu-
| featured for each other In the same rae
| tory.
| One of the reasons why the best makes
of cars are expensive is the enormous
| cost to the leading manufacturers OF the
great road-racing competitions: Ihese
races oblige the makers to pay heavy re-
tanning fees to large staff of professional
| racers. and lead to great expenditure In
preliminary trials and models. Often heavy
| sums are spent in trials Of new details
| which ultimately are never used.
NO MORE PINK TEAS.