Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-18
EXHIBIT BAD TIME
TO BUY MACHINE
NOVICES ATTRACTED BY THE
GLARE OF TRIMMINGS
Expert from Moline Factory Gives
Timely Advice to Prospec-
tive Purchasers of
Automobiles

No possible buyer is in an enviable
position at any automobile SHOW.
Some intending buyers go to the shows
with plenty of experience and capital
behind them. They have had person.
al experience with half a dozen cars,
they have watched twenty or thirty
more behaving, well or i'll in the hands
of close personal acquaintances near
their homes, yet the list of cars they
have to select from is by no means so
long and bulky as the catalogue which
records the names of the exhibitors.
Moreover, should they in the exhilara-
tion of show week make blunder and
buy a car which does not live up to
their ideals, they can afford to drop
five hundred or so in transferring their
volatile affections later on, says cor
respondent in Motor Print.
1t is far otherwise with the small
car buyer. He may know that two or
three cars which have been on the
market for q decade are good stuff all
through, but these are times of transit
ton and rapid development. These
very cars may be the last he wishes to
buy, because he fancies that more
revolutionary makers can offer hlm
equal material and workmanship dis
persed over a bigger chassis and a more
generous specification at the same or
even at a lower price.
OF actual merit he knows very little;
his acquaintance with mechanics IS
lust sufficient to make the confident
statements of the wildcat manufac-
turer seem plausible and sound to him;
he feels a dim reverence for the 'eX-
pert" who engages him in pleasant con-
versation as he peeps timidly at
weird gear box never inspected before
save in black and white section. In a
word, he is easily duped, and he cannot
afford to be duped. From a motoring
standpoint, it is life and death to him
that his car shall be not only good but,
if possible, the best at the price. Hence
it is proposed to offer one or two pieces
of very commonplace adVice-counselS
known to all who own a car, but oft
forgotten by the novice when he is in
toXicated by vistas of white staff deco
rations and the steely glitter of naked
mechanism. The entire atmosphere Of
an automobile exhibition is hypnotic to
the novice already losing mental ball
ance in pleasurable anticipations.
Let Designers Experiment
To begin with, don't experiment
Some designers do their own expert
menting. They personally spend
months on the road manhandling a
new design, trying to smash it up by
every species of misuse. mat Is why
their cars are so small and so dear.
Other makers apparently prefer to
have the experimenting done for them
by purchasers. That is why their cars
are so large and SO cheap. At every
show new cars of very taking aspect
will be seen-a show polish coVereth
multitude of mechanical errors.
Their sellers are, perhaps, making
their first bow to the public. 1t may
he a very creditable bow, but-are you
the man to decide whether the bow is
a deceitful smirk or the conscientious
humility of good work well done?
Just as one must not buy a car be-
cause it is new so one must not buy a
car because it is cheap If firm that
already possesses a wide reputation
offers a car that is appreciably cheap
or than it's rivals, the buyer may don
his thinking cap. He will probably
find still cheaper and bigger cars
tucked away in holes and corners
below electric lighted signs bearing
weird and unknown names. Leave
these to rich philanthropists, anxious
to encourage experiments.
Don't buy a car because 1t is big, as
the following story from Motor Print
illustrates:
81 had a dream the other night.