Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-02-12
LIFE OF AN AUTOMOBILE
EXPLAINED BY AN EXPERT
Herbert L. Towle Says High Grade Car
Does Not Break Down, But Simply
Wears Out From Constant Use.

1y impracticable to do anything except
buy new ones throughout. which would
cost more than the remaining value of
the car. 1t is true that in many cases
ingenuity will avail to minimize the ex-
pense, and it is also true that the ten
dency is steadily toward making it easier
to refit or replace the small as well as
the large wearing parts, and to defer
the day of their wearing out by prcvid-
ing fabrication. Nevertheless, it may be
said broadly that the car has reached
the end of its usefulness when its noise
is no longer bearabe
How is it with cheaper cars
Cheap Car Problem.
For one thing. the cheaper car does not
last as long. Where horsepower
car costing from 50 500 to $1,000, will
run $1,000 miles before ceasing to salts
fy the eXacting owner, the $1,000 car of
ike horsepower is exhausted when it has
covered $1,000 to 2O.0OO miles. AS for
the cars rated at twenty horsepower and
Whereabouts, and sold at $500 to Sl,oo9,
10000 miles seems to be about their limit
of mileage in the hands of the first own
er.
The fact is that it is impossible to build
as good car for the lower as for the
higher price. The gears, shafts, aXleS
and frames must abe of cheaper steel,
more hastily finished and put together.
The bearings are necessarily quite dlrer-
ent from the costly, but almost 1nde-
structible, ball and roller bearings OF
the expensive cars The fitting is more
hastily done, and detail refinements of
both design and construction are every
where sighted in order to get the factory
cost within the permissible limit The
result is not simply that wear Is more
rapid, but that it can less confidently be
predicted. The high-grade car is not
exactly like the "One-Hoss Shay" yet
at all events, it doesn't break down, but
simply wears out. The design Of the
cheap car is not SO we'll balanced: some
thing or other is sure to break or loosen
before it's time and little unpleasant sur
prises, such as the loosening of the steer
ing gear, the shearing OF q key. or the
stripping of a badly hardened gear are
to be expected after the first year of
service. These things may not necessa-
rily condemn the car for subsequent
pleasure use, but they do unfit 1t for the
exacting requirements Of business use.
Mr.. Towles' Opinion.
As for the value Of the car when sold at
the end Of its ten thousand or fifty thou
sand miles, that Is a subject on which 1t
is hard to generalize. Probably as many
used cars are sold at too high as at too
low figures. A low-grade car can gen.
orally be- sold for about half its first price
at the end Of the first season. though
whether 1t Is worth as much may some
times be questioned. The high-grade car
at the corresponding period Of its life will
admittedly command lower sum; that
is to say, one cannot sell 1t after fifty
thousand miles at half it's first price.
quarter is more nearly correct, but that is
due partly to the simple lapse of time and
partly to the likelihood that similar cars
can be bought for less money than the
used car cost when new. owing to the les
sened cost of production Even at that,
however, the writer regards the high
grade car bought with a view to running
it, say, fifty thousand miles before selling
as the more economical purchase of the
two.
Reprinted from Harper's Weekly September
10, 1900