Los Angeles herald., 1910-12-18
ENGLISH SLOW IN
BUYING OF AUTOS
British Makers Limit the Field of
Sales by Making High
Priced Cars
RICH CLASS is CATERED TO
Census of Machines in England
Show Total Increase for
1909 1874

To Americans who are not thorough
ly conVersant with foreign automobile
conditions 1t seems almost incredible
that there have not been more cars
manufactured and bought in England.
This is probably due to the fact that
English makers have limited their field
of sales by making generally only the
high-priced cars, which naturally can
be purchased only by the richer class.
There probably has never been a
more thorough investigation of auto
mobile conditions in England than that
recently made by Benjamin Briscoe.
Mr.. Briscoe says There is no
actual census published of the num-
Der of cars manufactured in Great
Britain, but from the registrations and
import and export figures L arrive at
figures which may be accepted as ap-
proximately the number of cars manu-
featured in England. There are now
registered in England 108,773 automo-
biles, of which number there are S4,S4O
private cars, 15,181 trade vehicles and
1852 public service cars. These fig
ures give a total Increase of 1884 for
1909 divided as follows: 13,435 private
cars, 3077 trade vehicles and 2672 pub
lie service cars.
1.-The imports for 1909 amount to 1866
cars at a valuation of $5,931, ,807O 4SS5
chasses at a valuation of Sc, ,409, 74O.6O
and with a parts valuation of $S,594,OO6
there Is a total valuation of imports
of 500, 1886, 553.65. OF the cars and
chasses imported $50 cars and 224
chasses having a total value of $1,23S,-
BATS were re-exported; and also parts
to the value of $671, ,691.0E. Deducting
the re-exports the net imports of cars
and chasses is reduced to 7747 cars.
There were exported during 1909 2583
cars at a valuation of $4,626, 1870 and
PIG chasses valued at $40S,239.05
From these figures it will be seen
that the total cars built by British
manufacturers is Approximately as
follows: Increase in registration as
above, 1884, deducting the net i'm
ports of 7747 and adding the British
exports of 2802 makes a total Of 1929
British cars and chasses manufactured
during 1909.
"The average value Of car imports
was $1615.05, while the average value
of British built exports is $1,7S9.65.
"These figures are interesting and
show the value of imports and exports
to and from the various countries in
the world and steady rise in the ex-
port of British manufactured goods.
In four years British exports have in
creased over 100 per cent whereas the
imports and re-exports are almost sta
tionary. At the present time, the i'm
portation of American cars is insigni-
ficant when compared to the imports
from France which far exceed the i'm
ports from any other country. The
comparative import figures for 1909 are
as follows: France, $12,224, ,992.45; Ger
many, $4,000, 0.75; Belgium, $1,772,914.-
so; Italy, $1,093, ,50040; while the Unit
ed States imported only $709,167 worth
of automobiles to England. The Unit
ed States, during 1909 only supplied 8
and $40 per cent of the total imports.
The total turnover in money of the
British trade in 1909 amounted to $61,-
2S2,873.40
"At the present time there are some
forty-five makes of pleasure cars in